The New Ten Commandments 



By 

Louis Albert Banks, D.D. 

The New Ten Commandments 

And Other Sermons $1.50 

Strong, stirring Gospel addresses reflecting the 
true evangelical note. Dr. Banks' latest volume, 
fully maintains his impressive, picturesque style of 
presentation. 

Thirty- One Revival Sermons 

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THE NEW TEN 
COMMANDM ENTS 

And other Sermons 



By 

LOUIS ALBERT BANKS 



Author of " Christ and His Friends" "The Great Saints of the 
Bible," "Soul-Winning Stories" "Thirty-one Revival 
Sermons," "Prayer Meeting Talks," etc. 




New York Chicago 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



Copyright, 1922, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 



-ft* 



Printed in United States of America, 



New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 

DEC 30 f 22 

©CU602627 



To 

My Wife 
Florence Aiken Banks 
In whose loving intellectual and 
spiritual fellowship these sermons had 
their inspiration, this volume 
is gratefully dedicated 
by the author. 



Contents 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The New Ten Commandments . . 9 
Rev. 21:5; Matt. 5 : 1 

II.. Expect Great Things .... 24 
Heb. 10 : 13 

III. Going on Adventures with Jesus . 36 

Luke 24 : 28 

IV. The Happy Fortune of the Good Will 

Men 47 

Luke 2 : 14 

V. Sun-Facing Lives 58 

Psalms 4 : 6 

VI. The Love Mysteries of God . .70 
I Timothy 3 : 16 ; I John 4 : 16 

VII. The Love Mysteries of Jesus . . 80 

I John 4 : 9-1 1 

VIII. The Tragedy of the Gospel Jesus 

Cannot Preach .... 93 
John 16 : 12 

IX. The Jazz Spirit in Modern Life . . 102 
Matt. 7 : 26, 27 

X. The Folly of Meddling with God . 113 

II Chronicles 35:21 

XI. The Voice of Jesus 122 

John 10 13, 4 
7 



8 



CONTENTS 



XII. Unexplored Spiritual Harmonies . 138 
I Cor. 2 : 9, 10 

XIII. The Vision Splendid . . . .148 

John 20 : 25 

XIV. The Romantic Interest in the 

Christian's Fellowship . . .163 
I John 1 : 3 



XV. When God Lives with Me . . .175 
I Cor. 6 : 19 



I 



THE NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 

"And he that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make 
all things new. — Rev. 21:5. 

" And he opened his mouth and taught them." — Matt. 5:1. 

CHRIST made all things new because he 
brought God into close, intimate touch with 
life. The earth is very old, and most of it 
that we see has known the barren deadness of ten 
thousand winters, but at the touch of the springtime 
sun all things become new and fresh, with hope and 
promise as though the old earth had never heard the 
call from heaven before. So Jesus takes up all the 
old commonplace problems that pertain to men and 
women and children, and under his touch they spring 
into newness of life. He brings God to us, and at 
his call everything springs into vibrant pulsating life. 
The Sermon on the Mount, given at length in the 
fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of the Gospel as 
it is recorded by Matthew, is a wonderful example 
of how Jesus by bringing the old commandments re- 
ceived by Moses on Mount Sinai into human con- 
duct and clothing them about with love filled them 
with fascination and charm, so that it seemed an 
entirely new teaching. It was the difference between 
theory and life. Christ put the Mosaic command- 
ments into a man, breathed into them the breath of 

9 



10 NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 



life, clothed them with the essence of the God who 
is love, and lo ! we have the most magnetic appeal to 
the human heart and the most attractive presenta- 
tion of truth about life, that the world has ever seen. 

Let us take them one by one for a brief glance for 
the inspiration and comfort of our hearts. 

The first commandment is what men have come 
commonly to call " The Golden Rule." 

I. The Rule of Brotherhood 

" Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that 
men should do to you, do ye even so to them." The 
romantic beauty of this rule is that Christ lived it 
before all men. Throughout his life he treated others 
exactly as he would wish them to treat him if he 
were in their place, and he assures us that as we 
treat others, so he will treat us. " Judge not and ye 
shall not be judged, condemn not and ye shall not be 
condemned; forgive and ye shall be forgiven." And 
again, " For he shall have judgment without mercy, 
that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth 
against judgment." And still again, " For with what 
judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with 
what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you 
again." This is Christ's first test of a good man. 
We must not fail here or we are blocked at the very 
start. It is very simple. In every confusing situa- 
tion I have only to ask, " How would I wish this 
man or that woman to treat me, if I were in the same 
situation?" It revolutionizes life very quickly, and 
life must be revolutionized if it is to be saved. Slav- 
ery went down before this golden rule. The liquor 



NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 11 



traffic is 'being overthrown by the steady pounding 
of the golden rule, war must be overthrown by the 
same battering ram, and in your life and in mine evil 
must cease and good must come to the throne by our 
acceptance and obedience to the golden rule. 

II. The Rule of Gentleness 

Christ assures us that the good man is known by 
tke way he acts under injustice. Hear his wonderful 
words: " I say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but 
whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn 
to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee 
at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy 
cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go 
a mile, go with him twain." Christ lived by that 
rule. " Who when he was reviled, reviled not again ; 
when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed 
himself to him that judgeth righteously." That rule 
when interpreted by its spirit is simply this, that we 
will not seek to avenge ourselves. We will not be 
angry because one is angry with us. We will not 
return evil words or deeds because we have received 
them. Most of us have to hang our heads in shame 
when we think of the retaliatory things we have said 
and done. But just because it is hard at first, and a 
commandment easily broken, we must fortify at 
this point. The good man must train himself to gen- 
tleness, model his treatment of those who are unjust 
to him after the conduct of his Master. 

" Come wealth or want, oome good or ill, 
Let young and old accept their part, 
And bow before the Awful Will, 
And bear it with an honest heart, 



12 NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 



Who misses or who wins the prize — 

Go, lose or conquer as you can; 
But if you fail, or if you rise, 

Be each, pray God, a gentleman." 

The very source of that word " gentleman " which 
every true man prizes so highly is in this rule of 
Christ's holding human conduct to the law of 
gentleness. 

III. The Rule of Love 

Jesus says a good man can be known by the 
breadth of his love. It is natural and very easy to 
love those who love us and who treat us kindly. We 
are ingrates, and inhuman, and monsters of ingrati- 
tude unless we do that. But our love life is very 
cramped and narrow if it goes no further than that. 
Jesus says : " I say unto you, love your enemies, 
bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate 
you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, 
and persecute you." And if you ask why, Jesus 
answers : " That ye may be the children of your 
Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun 
to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain 
on the just and the unjust." If we hold ourselves 
steadily to this law of love in the treatment of those 
who dislike us, and seek to do them good, we become 
like God. Our lives become splendid as we triumph 
over that which is hard for us. 
^You have doubtless heard of the little boy's com- 
ment on the path which made Abraham Lincoln a 
great man. He said : 



NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 13 



"It's no wonder, 
Look what he had to make him great: 
He had that log cabin, 
He had that pine knot, 
He had those rails to split; 
He had that tall plug hat, 
He had all those stories, 
He had that Douglass debate, 
He had that Civil War to win, 
He had that Gettysburg speech, 
He had everything 
To make a man great. 
And look what I have got — 
Not one of those things." 

Lincoln became great and gentle and patient and 
wise and immortal through holding himself steady 
and faithful against heavy odds to the law of love. 
In our humbler path we, too, may conquer in the 
same fight. The true Christian man will always be 
known by the way he acts when he is abused. It is 
so easy to fly off into anger and give way to resent- 
ment, but that is not Christlike. On the Cross he 
prayed for his enemies and persecutors, and said: 
" Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they 
do." ^May God give us victory on this hard battle- 
ground! Such victory can only be sure by a heart 
that opens to receive the love of God into its depths. 
God is love. It is the very spirit of his life. If I 
keep close to God and seek always to know his feel- 
ing about life, then I, too, will become love and all 
that stands in the way of my loving others will be 
overcome. God is so willing to give himself to us 
if we ask him. Do you remember that wonderful 
verse of James Russell Lowell's : 



14 



NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 



"Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us; 
The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in, 
The priest has his fee who comes and shrives us, 
We bargain for the graves we lie in; 
At the devil's booth are all things sold, 
Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold; 
For a cap and bells our lives we pay, 
Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking. 
'Tis heaven alone that is given away, 
'Tis only God may be had for the asking; 
No price is set on the lavish summer; 
June may be had by the poorest comer." 

The June of infinite love comes to every heart that 
comes to God asking. 

IV. The Rule of Forgiveness 

Again Jesus says that a good man is to be tested 
by the way he forgives those who wrong him. In- 
deed, Christ lays tremendous stress upon this rule. 
With great solemnity he says : " For if ye forgive 
men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also 
forgive you; but if ye forgive not men their tres- 
passes, neither will your Father forgive your tres- 
passes." So our very hope of divine forgiveness for 
our own sins hinges on our willingness to forgive 
those who sin against us. Perhaps more sorrow is 
caused by people who count themselves among good 
people, through lack of a spirit of forgiveness than 
from almost anything else. We cannot be truly 
happy a single day or a single hour unless we feel 
that God is freely and lovingly forgiving us our many 
sins against him, and yet if we are treasuring up re- 
sentment against any one we know, he cannot for- 
give us. Sometimes a whole church is saddened and 



NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 15 



made weak and powerless for good because of this 
lack of forgiveness. 

I was once holding a series of evangelistic meet- 
ings in a church and the meetings had gone on for a 
week, and there had been little apparent result. All 
was formal and cold and lifeless. I seemed to be 
beating my soul out against a stone wall. On Sun- 
day morning as I preached I laid the emphasis on 
the matter of forgiveness of injuries, and urged that 
we ought never to wait until one who had wronged 
us apologized, that it was too serious a matter for 
that, but we should go and frankly and lovingly 
assure the other person of our forgiveness and our 
desire to live in the spirit of love. Now, I did not 
know it, but there was a man in the congregation 
who had had a quarrel with another man in that 
church, and it had grown into a good deal of a feud, 
and though they belonged to the same church they 
did not speak to each other when they met, and it 
had split the people of the church into two factions. 
Well, as soon as the sermon was over the man who 
had been at church went straight across the fields to 
his neighbour with whom he had quarrelled, and 
when the other came to the door he burst into tears 
and said : " John, I cannot stand this any longer. 
You have felt hard toward me, and I have been bit- 
ter toward you, and I am unhappy and you don't 
come to church any more, and my heart is broken 
about it. Forgive me, John. I forgive you every- 
thing, and let us ask God to forgive us and be at 
peace and live as Christian men ought to live." 
The other man melted in a moment, and that after- 



16 NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 



noon those two men came to church together and sat 
near the front in the same seat and sang out of the 
same hymn book, and the spirit that came on the 
church was that of Pentecost, and the church awoke 
to new spiritual power and hundreds were converted 
to God. God grant us the spirit of forgiveness ! 

V. The Tongue Rule 
How close the Psalmist came to the proper law of 
the tongue when he exclaimed : " Let the words of 
my mouth and the meditation of my heart be ac- 
ceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my 
redeemer." Jesus says : " Let your communication 
be, Yea, Yea; Nay, Nay; for whatsoever is more 
than these cometh of evil," which Paul, commenting 
and elaborating upon, enlarges into : " Let all bitter- 
ness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speak- 
ing be put away from you, with all malice, and be 
ye kind one to another even as God for Christ's sake 
hath forgiven you." Many of us talk too much, and 
few people bridle the tongue with sufficient care. 
Many otherwise good people would have much 
greater influence for good if they held the tongue 
always not only to the law of kindness and gentle- 
ness, but also to the rule of charity and consideration 
for the feelings of others. An unwise, uncharitable 
word is often as dangerous as a spark from a passing 
locomotive in a field of ripened grain, and burns and 
consumes a promising harvest in another soul, leav- 
ing only blackened ruins in its path. Let each of us 
be careful of our tongues that they never go forth 
unbridled. And here, too, there is great blessing for 



NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 17 



triumph over difficulties. If this is our besetting sin, 
it will not be easy for us, but our victory will be all 
the richer in blessing because it is hard to win. 
C Ella Wheeler Wilcox sings with true spiritual in- 
sight when she says: 

" 'Tis easy enough to be pleasant, 

When life flows along like a song, 
But the man worth while is the one who will smile 

When everything goes dead wrong; 
For the test of the heart is trouble, 

And it always comes with the years, 
And the smile that is worth the praises of earth, 

Is the smile that shines through tears." ^ 

VI. The Rule Against Worry 
How tenderly Jesus gives utterance to the com- 
mand against worry. It is one of the tenderest as 
well as one of the most beautiful in the beautiful 
Book of God. " Wherefore," says Jesus, " if God 
so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and 
to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much 
more clothe you, O ye of little faith! Therefore 
take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? or, What 
shall we drink ? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed ? 
(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for 
your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of 
all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of 
God, and his righteousness ; and all these things shall 
be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for 
the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for 
the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the 
evil thereof." 

Is it not apparent from these wonderful wftrds of 
Jesus that our worry all comes from our not having 



18 NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 



at the time a clear sense of the presence of God in 
our affairs? 

Tolstoi once said that the trouble with the world 
is that it has lost its sense of God. The supreme dif- 
ference between Jesus and other good men is his keen 
consciousness of God. Jesus realized his oneness with 
God. He said : " I have come to show you the 
Father; he that hath seen me hath seen the Father." 

Now Jesus never did anything for men in a spirit- 
ual way that he did not ask them to do for them- 
selves. Jesus always identifies his life with man's 
life, and man's life with his. He says: "As I am 
one with my Father, I pray that ye also may be one." 
And again: "As the Father hath sent me into the 
world, even so I am sending you into the world" 
He called himself "The Light of the World"; but 
he also said : " Ye are the light of the world." 

When we feel our oneness to God, that God is not 
afar off, but at hand, there is no need to worry. We 
worry only when we lose God. 

Science and the Bible are at last a unit on this 
gloriously comforting truth of the immanence, the 
presence of God as the vital force everywhere, in 
everything. 

There was a time when the scientist talked a great 

deal about " dead matter," but he recognizes to-day 

that all matter is living matter, and God is in it. The 

scientist agrees now with the Christian poet when 

he sings: 

"Speak to him, thou, for he hears, 
Spirit with spirit can meet; 
Closer is He than breathing, 
Nearer than hands or feet." 



NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 19 

VII. The Rule About Secret Prayer 
All public prayer is to some extent consciously or 
unconsciously affected by the pressure of the audi- 
ence. The real test of prayer applies only to our 
secret devotions, and it is there where Jesus lays the 
emphasis. After telling of some people who ex- 
ploited their professed religion by public prayers, 
Jesus says : " But thou, when thou prayest, enter into 
thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray 
to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father 
which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." 
Jesus often spent whole nights m secret prayer. He 
communed alone with his Father. The breath from 
heaven comforted his soul as he prayed. 

It is told of Michael Angeio that by his prolonged 
and unremitting toil upon the frescoed domes which 
he wrought he acquired such an habitual upturn of 
the countenance that as he walked the streets men 
called him " a visionary with the heaven-turned 
face." If we are much in secret prayer it will give 
us a heavenward looking mind and heart, and a peace 
and courage earth cannot give. 

" Treasure the gift of a quiet heart, 
For the crown of peace is rare ; 
And a mind at rest is the better part: 
God's pledge to the child of care. 

"Fear not the storm, for he holds the sea 
In the hollow of his hand ; 
Sorrow or pain can come to thee 
Only at his command. 

" Run out to welcome the dawning day 
With shout that is cheery and strong, 
For many who travel along life's way 
Are helped by a brave man's song. 



20 NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 



"So quiet thy soul with the thought that God 
Still reigns on the throne of time, 
With sandals of peace the feet are shod 
Which carry this truth sublime. 

''When Duty calls, thrice blest is he 
Who dare obey her choice; 
For Duty's call, when heard by thee, 
Is God's directing voice. 

"All things are good and work his will; 
His love will hold thee fast: — 
Dread not the future — trust — be still: 
God holds thee to the last." 

VIII. The Rule About Money 
The Christian religion has to do in a practical way 
with everything we think or say or do or possess. 
We are not built like compartment ships, we are a 
unit. If I am to be a good man, my money must 
come under the law of Christ. Jesus says : " Lay 
not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where 
moth and rust consume, and where thieves break 
through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treas- 
ures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth 
consume, and where thieves do not break through 
nor steal ; for where thy treasure is, there will thy 
heart be also." 

Now there is no prohibition in this nor in Christ's 
attitude toward life at any time toward thrift and 
proper provision for the necessities of life here; but 
it clearly sets forth that money, earthly treasures, 
must never be counted superior or the equal of spirit- 
ual values. It must always be held in submission as 
the servant of the spiritual treasures that will endure 
forever. 

Christ illustrates in his own life the principle he 



NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 



21 



teaches here. Paul says: "Ye know the grace of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet 
for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his 
poverty might become rich." That is the spirit in 
which we must hold all our earthly treasures to be 
used for the blessing and saving of humanity. 

IX. The Rule of Obedience 
Jesus makes obedience the test of discipleship. He 
says : " Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, 
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that 
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." 

Jesus puts us side by side with himself in obedi- 
ence. He says : " If ye keep my commandments, ye 
shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my 
Father's commandments and abide in his love." He 
judges the quality of our friendship by the character 
of our obedience : " Ye are my friends, if ye do 
whatsoever I command you." He makes it the ther- 
mometer that gauges our love: "If ye love me, 
keep my commandments." And again he says: 
" He that hath my commandments, and keepeth 
them, he it is that loveth me: and he that 
loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I 
will love him, and manifest myself unto him." And 
still again he says : " If a man love me, he will keep 
my word : and my Father will love him, and we will 
come unto him, and make our abode with him." And 
John the beloved disciple, commenting on these words 
long afterwards, wrote : " Hereby do we know that 
we know him, if we keep his commandments. He 
that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his com- 



22 NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 



mandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 

The path of obedience is the only way by which 
we may rejoice the heart of God, gladden the heart 
of our Saviour, and bring the peace of heaven to our 
own souls. 

I read the other day of a Korean Christian who 
told in prayer meeting how he conquered anger, 
which was his besetting sin. The Missionary had be- 
fore explained to him how every burst of anger 
pierced the heart of Jesus. " So I hung a picture of 
the Lord Jesus on my wall," he said, " and every 
time I lost my temper I put a thorn on that picture. 
The picture was soon covered with thorns. A great 
love came over me that he should suffer because of 
my temper, and now he gives me grace in temptation. 
I say, ' Not I, but Christ within me/ and his sweet- 
ness comes instead of my bad temper." God help 
us all to keep the rule of obedience. 

X. The Rule About Fruit 
Finally we come to the results. After all, the test 
of the tree is in the fruit it bears. Jesus puts this 
very clearly : " Ye shall know them by their fruits. 
Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; 
but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good 
tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a cor- 
rupt tree bring forth good fruit." 

And again Jesus puts it in another way : " Let 
your light so shine before men, that they may see 
your good works, and glorify your Father which is 
in heaven." And Paul, in that wonderful description 



NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS 23 



of the Christian's spiritual garden in the fifth of 
Galatians, says : " The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, 
peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 
meekness, temperance : against such there is no law." 
We must not neglect the cultivation of any of these 
beautiful and blessed trees in the garden of our souls. 

Now we have glanced at these ten rules which 
Jesus lays down for the Christian life. How glorious 
is our calling! It is the noblest conception of life 
possible for God to conceive for his children. It is 
a glorious thing to be a Christian. We cannot 
achieve it in our own strength, but in fellowship with 
Jesus Christ we can achieve it. 

Let us go forth from our study of these new com- 
mandments of our Saviour and Lord singing with 
Robert Browning: 

" I go to prove my soul ! 
I see my way, as birds their trackless way. 
I shall arrive ! What time, what circuit first 
I ask not: but unless God send his hail, 
Or blinding fire-balls, sleet or stifling snow, 
In some time, his good time, I shall arrive; 
He guides me and the bird. In his good time ! " 



II 



EXPECT GREAT THINGS 

" Henceforth expecting till his enemies be made the foot- 
stool of his ieet."—Heb. 10: 13. 

THAT virile and frankly Christian writer, 
Bruce Barton, not long ago had a most re- 
markable interview with the then head of 
the Roman Catholic Church in America, the late 
Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore, after he had passed 
his eighty-sixth milestone in the journey of life. 

In beginning his conversation with Cardinal Gib- 
bons, Mr. Barton remarked : " I notice that your 
secretary and your associates are all young men." 

" That's part of the secret of warding of! old age," 
the Cardinal answered, with a smile the freshness of 
which belied his years. " When a man begins to look 
back, then he is old. I never look back. Lot's wife 
looked back, you remember, and was destroyed. 
Looking back is destruction always — the beginning of 
the end. After a person passes middle life he ought 
to surround himself with those who have a long time 
yet to look forward." He turned so that he faced a 
little into the sun. " Until you are forty, seek the 
companionship of men who are older," he continued. 
" After that, keep a vital contact with those who are 
younger. That is a pretty good rule. Until my re- 
cent sickness I used to walk every afternoon from 

24 



EXPECT GREAT THINGS 



25 



five to six, and whom did I choose for companions? 
Students from the Seminary. They come from every 
part of the United States: one day a man from 
Massachusetts, another day one from Oklahoma, and 
so on. They tell me their hopes and their ambitions 
and their plans. 

" And do you want to know what I say to them ? 
I say, ' Young man, expect great things ! Expect 
great things of God ; great things of your fellow men 
and of yourself. Expect great things of America. 
For great opportunities are ahead; greater than any 
that have come before. But only those who have the 
courage and the vision to expect them will profit 
when they come.' " 

And at the close of that long and extraordinarily 
interesting conversation he closed the interview on 
the same key: 

" I said at the beginning, ' Young man, expect 
great things.' And I say it again at the end. I have 
lived almost three times as long as the average age 
of your readers. I have watched men climb up to 
success, hundreds of them ; and of all the elements 
that are important for success, the most important is 
Faith. Those who throw up their hands in discour- 
agement when the first snow falls, fail to profit when 
the sunshine of spring returns. And no great thing 
comes to any man unless he has courage, even in dark 
days, to expect great things ; to expect them of him- 
self, of his fellow men, of America, and of God." 

When I read this remarkable and exceeding profit- 
able piece of advice from this venerable man out of 
his long experience, there came to me these similar 



26 EXPEGT GREAT THINGS 



words written nearly two thousand years ago by 
a greater than Cardinal Gibbons, — the words of 
St. Paul, in describing the attitude of Jesus since he 
gave himself on the cross as the infinite sacrifice for 
the sins of the world. Paul says, writing of Jesus 
in the tenth chapter of his Epistle to the Hebrews : 
" But he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins 
forever, sat down on the right hand of God; hence- 
forth expecting till his enemies be made the footstool 
of his feet." 

This wonderful declaration appeals to our imagina- 
tion very strongly. It gives us the picture of Jesus 
watching through all the ages the strife and turmoil 
and evolution of mankind, never for a moment losing 
the attitude of confident expectation that the love of 
God, which had its supreme revelation in the suffer- 
ings of the cross on Calvary, will finally come to ever- 
lasting triumph. 

Others may lose hope for humanity, but Jesus 
never. Others may become discouraged, but Jesus 
is the eternal optimist. " Henceforth expecting." 
That is the Christian attitude for us all if we are to 
imitate our Lord himself. I wish to apply this so as 
to be an immediate blessing to each of us. 

I 

Expect great things of your own physical life. I 
speak of the physical first because it is the first essen- 
tial and has so much to do with our success in every 
other phase of our career. A man's or a woman's 
body is as important as the nest is to the young bird. 
"As useless as a last-year's bird's nest " has gone into 



EXPECT GEE AT THINGS 27 



proverb, but nothing is more important to the young 
bird than this year's bird's nest, and your body is 
" this year's " life nest for you. No young man or 
young woman can afford to be careless or indifferent 
concerning the health and strength of the body. It 
is either one of your greatest assets or one of your 
heaviest liabilities. Without health and strength of 
body you will be increasingly handicapped and lim- 
ited in your powers of achievement throughout your 
life. Every other gift or blessing of life will be dis- 
counted and detracted from if you surrender to go 
through life with a weak or sickly body. But what 
miracles can be wrought by improving your body and 
bringing it into a state of health and power if you 
will expect great things of it, and give yourself with 
earnest determination to realize your expectations. 

Theodore Roosevelt, who was the beau ideal of the 
athletic world for so many years in America, was a 
very weak and sickly child. In her reminiscences of 
her brother, Mrs. Robinson tells how the first Theo- 
dore Roosevelt, father of the future President of the 
United States, turned one of the upstairs rooms in 
their New York City residence into a kind of out- 
door gymnasium, with every imaginable swing and 
bar and seesaw, and when the second Theodore was 
eleven years old his father took him up into this 
gymnasium and said : " Theodore, you have the mind, 
but you have not the body, and without the help of 
the body the mind cannot go as far as it should. You 
must make your body. It is hard drudgery to make 
one's body, but I know you will do it." The little 
boy looked up, and threw back his head in a charac- 



28 EXPECT GREAT THINGS 



teristic fashion. Then, with a flash of those white 
teeth — which later in life became so well known that 
when he was police commissioner in New York City 
it was said that any recreant policeman would faint 
if he came suddenly face to face with a set of false 
teeth in a shop window — he said : " I'll make my 
body." And how splendidly he lived up to the ex- 
pectations of his father, and his own, the story of his 
romantic and useful life tells. 

II 

We should expect much of our minds and the suc- 
cess of the work to which we give our energies for 
our share in the work of the world. 

Your success in the development of your mental 
power will be largely dictated by your expectations. 
" According to thy faith be it unto thee," is just as 
scientific in our every-day life as any demonstrated 
truth of science. You will not do more than you 
expect. Orville Harrold, who is generally conceded 
to be the greatest American tenor, is a splendid illus- 
tration of the power of expecting great things in high 
endeavor. He was a farm boy on a poor farm where 
there was no money for education. He was twenty 
years old before he graduated from the High School, 
so hardly did he have to work his way through. But 
he had faith in himself and in the powers God had 
given him to produce musical sounds, and struggled 
on. When finally, very late in life for the triumph 
of a great singer, he had brought the musical world 
to his feet, when asked the secret of his success, he 
said very simply : " I won because I thought I could 



EXPECT GKEAT THINGS 29 



win." He expected great things and so achieved 
them. 

There is a picture called " The Devil's Auction " 
in which, among many other articles, the devil, who 
is the auctioneer, holds in his hand a small wedge with 
a very sharp edge. This he is said to prize above all 
his other tools, because he has caused more failures 
with it than through any other device. The name of 
that efficient tool in the devil's shop is Discourage- 
ment. Discouragement is the most insidious enemy 
known to man. So long as a man keeps his courage 
and expects great things, he is never defeated; but 
the discouraged man is whipped before the battle 
begins. 

Ill 

We should expect great things of our friends 
and those we love. We should deem this of the 
greatest importance, because the very sweetest and 
most satisfying comfort that will come to us in all 
our human experiences will be the love and friend- 
ship we win from others, and the tenderness and af- 
fection we feel for them. 

Have you heard the story of the " Ruby of Great 
Price?" We are told that Abdul Hamid had long 
been troubled in his mind as he wove baskets in the 
doorway of his humble hut. So he asked of the bam- 
boo tree beside the path : " Why should I toil and 
slave to make my living? Perhaps I shall be the 
one to discover the Ruby of Great Price, and so I 
shall become the Great Mogul, as the gods ordained 



30 



EXPECT GREAT THINGS 



when they hid the great and beautiful stone. To- 
morrow I will start and search until I find it." 

And so Abdul Hamid sold his little hut and 
searched all the rest of his life throughout all the 
lands of the East for the Ruby of Great Price. But 
his search was in vain, and at the last, an old and 
broken and defeated man, he came back to die among 
the scenes of his youth, his only hope to be buried 
beneath the great bamboo tree that grew beside the 
path near the little hut where he used to weave 
baskets. But imagine his astonishment on his return 
to find that where once his little hut stood there was 
now the marble palace of the Great Mogul, and to 
find that the poor peasant no richer than himself, to 
whom he had sold his hut, had, underneath the door- 
step where for so many years he had sat to weave 
baskets, found the Ruby of Great Price. 

Oh, my friends, it is not in searching the halls of 
political fame, or the palaces of great wealth, or the 
temples of science, but in your own home, at your 
own doorstep, the richest and sweetest and most won- 
derful prize of life is to be found. It is in the bosom 
of your mother or your father. It is in the heart of 
your wife or your husband. It is in the love of your 
child or the affection of your friend. 

Did David in all the years of his life in the palace 
as the great king of his time ever find any Ruby 
of Great Price as dear and rich with blessing as the 
love of Jonathan, who risked his life for him? 

Expect great things of those you love and those 
who love you, and they will rarely disappoint you. 



EXPECT GREAT THINGS 



31 



IV 

We must expect great things of God. We must 
expect great things in our spiritual development and 
in the enrichment of our own characters in true 
goodness and nobility of manhood and womanhood. 

There are three fields where we may expect great 
help in our spiritual lives and in the development of 
righteous character. 

I. The first of these must always be through per- 
sonal communion with God, in prayer. Our attitude 
toward prayer should be that of the disciples to 
Jesus : " Lord, teach us how to pray ! " 

Teach us to pray, 

In accents measured by thy truth, 

Thy love divine ! 

Teach us the way 

That leads past earthly night 

To gates of dawn, 

And everlasting day. 

O Master of our way, 

Teach us to pray! 

Teach us to pray ! 

To hearken by the gate ajar 

To unseen choruses of light, 

The choruses of faith, of praise and peace. 

Teach us to reach 

The far grand measure 

Of thy praise divine, 

O Lord of earth, 

Teach us to pray! 

Teach us to pray, 

In accents measured by thy love, 

Remove the earth mist from our eyes 

That we may see, 

Push thou ajar the gate of time 

That we may hear. 

And in thy vision glorified, 

Lift us to thee, 

O Lord and Master of our life 
Teach us to pray! 



32 EXPECT GREAT THINGS 



2. The second great help to the spiritual life we 
will find in the earnest, expectant reading and study 
of the Bible. And in approaching the Bible we must 
never forget that what we find will depend very 
largely on the spirit of our minds in our opening it 
for help. 

rjohn Hays Hammond, one of the greatest mining 



that one finds in Africa what he seeks. It does not 
mean the same to all. To the imaginative youth, 
Africa stands for mystery, endless deserts, jungles 
and dark forests, towering snow-clad peaks, the lost 
Mountains of the Moon, cataracts beside which 
Niagara is a small affair, multitudes of black slaves, 
elephants, lions, camels, and other strange denizens 
of the zoo. It means ruins of ancient cities, great 
gold camps, diamond mines, strange tribes and 
stranger customs, cannibals and pyramids. It is the 
land of adventure. 

To the student Africa means destroyed nations, 
vast tombs, and the thoughts of men long dead given 
to us to read on miles of stone carvings. It is still 
the land of adventure. 

To the hard-headed, unromantic, business man, 
who cares it may be nothing for the past and little 
for the future, it is the land of greatest risks and 
quickest returns. It means miles of mills grinding 
out gold day and night ; without ceasing, grinding it 
out literally by the ton — the greatest gold camp on 
earth, a vast black army of kaffirs digging forever 
in endless underground galleries. It means diamond 
fields, supplying the world with precious stones ; cop- 




world, writing about Africa, says 



EXPECT GREAT THINGS 



33 



per, too ; zinc, lead, iron, coal, rubber, ivory, palm-oil, 
and spices. It is still the land of adventure. 

To the statesman and philosopher Africa beckons 
with a seductive finger. During thousands of years 
every race of mankind has marched into that mys- 
terious continent. They have built cities and founded 
countless colonies. But whatever the search or what- 
ever the result, it is always the land of adventure. 

Now the Bible is in many ways like that. It is one 
thing to the historian, another thing to the poet, still 
another to the student of literature or comparative 
science, but always repays the adventurous explorer. 
But to the man or the woman who wants to find God, 
who wants to find the meaning of sin and the cure 
for his or her wicked heart, who longs for a ladder 
that leads from earth up to heaven, this is the most 
glorious and profitable field of adventure on the 
globe. 

Here we learn about God and his love for us. 
Here we find the love of God coming down to earth 
in the person of Jesus Christ, who took upon him- 
self not the nature of angels, but our own human 
nature, and lived the divine life of heaven in the 
midst of our own human conditions. Here in the 
Bible we find the cross as the center of man's ex- 
pectations and hope, and the divine and glorious as- 
surance that Jesus, the divine Son of God, who gave 
his life there as a ransom for sinners, is " able to 
save unto the uttermost all who come unto God by 
him." We see Saul, the chief of sinners, become 
Paul, the chief of saints. We find the exploit of that 
marvelous power of God that has later turned a 



34 



EXPECT GREAT THINGS 



drunken thief of a Jerry McAuley into an apostle of 
Jesus; a debauched John G. Wooley into an evangel 
of a sober world ; and a dissolute baseball player into 
the most famous and efficient evangelist to great mul- 
titudes the world has ever seen. Here is the place 
where we may find salvation and uplift of the soul 
and culture of the spirit, and find our most extrava- 
gant expectations of spiritual inspiration to lofty 
character more than realized. C 

Third, we will find in service of our fellow men, 
following the example of Jesus who went about 
doing good, the greatest realm of glorious blessing 
to humanity. Expect great things in serving human- 
ity, and God will more than realize your fondest 
hopes. 

Oh, how much we need at this very chaotic hour 
of the world's history, when so many are discouraged, 
that every true follower of Jesus Christ shall imitate 
the example of their Lord and go forth to preach his 
Gospel and seek to win sinning men to Christ, not 
with doubtful or apologetic spirit, but in the atti- 
tude of Jesus, who waits, " Henceforth expecting 
till his enemies be made the footstool of his feet." 

The night is dark, storm clouds hang low, 

And fitful lights flash through the gloom. 
Men do not know the way to go. 

The deeper darkness tokens doom. 
Before the darkness, souls are bowed. 

The flashing lights do but betray 
Black question marks upon the cloud ; 

And men are asking, "Whither way?" 
The lore of man reveals no light; 

Philosophy is blind before 
The growing gloom; and deeper night 

Reveals to straining eyes no door. 



EXPECT GREAT THINGS 



35 



But in the background, on the cloud 

The great interrogations stand, 
And hearts in agony are bound, 

And " Whither way ? " the souls demand. 

Is there no way? Is there no light? 

No, not of man. But o'er the gloom, 
The voice of God breaks through the night, 

And Triumph paeans o'er the tomb 
Of black dead hopes : God lives and reigns. 

His everlasting tidings bright 
Will heal the wounds and wash the stains, 

And make the sad old dark world light. 

Believe in God ! Creative power 

Responds to faith, makes strong the soul ; 
And in this awful judgment hour, 

No other cure can make thee whole. 

" Fear God," " give glory," " worship him " — 

Creator of the rolling spheres. 
The light of life shall never dim 

With him — joy of eternal years. 

Beyond the turbid, murky cloud, 
There shines the light of endless day; 

Beyond the gloom palls that enshroud, 
Stretches the holy, heavenly way ; 

Beyond the anxious questions rise 
The glorious answers of our God, 

So true, so sure, so just, so wise. 

The way? — The path our Saviour trod. 



Ill 



GOING ON ADVENTURES WITH JESUS 
" He made as though he would go further." — Luke 24:28. 

CHRISTIANITY is not simply a system of 
negations, and thou shalt nots. It is a call 
to romantic exploration and lofty daring 
achievement. 

The greatest commandments in the decalogue are 
among the thou shalts. When the lawyer among the 
Pharisees came to question Jesus, and asked " Which 
is the great commandment in the law ? " Jesus an- 
swered : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
mind. This is the great and first commandment, and 
a second like unto it is this: Thou shalt love thy 
neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments 
the whole law hangeth, and the prophets." So you 
see, according to Christ's classification, both the first 
and second in importance among the commandments 
are thou shalts, and all the virtue in the thou shalt 
nots comes from obedience to these two thou shalts. 

The very first step in the Christian life calls for 
adventure. Christ was always for advance. When 
the disciples came to him and told him that all the 
people in the town where they were believed on him, 
Jesus said : " Let us go into the next towns." Christ 
is always for going on and doing more. He often 

36 



ADVENTURES WITH JESUS 



37 



said while on earth that he would and could have 
done vastly more for the people of his day if they 
had had more faith. When he wept over the doomed 
city of Jerusalem his cry was : " How often would * 
I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen 
gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye 
would not!" If they had been willing to venture 
farther with Jesus, he would have saved them from 
a thousand woes. And there is not one of us that 
Jesus would not have already done more for, if we 
had only had the daring faith that would have fol- 
lowed him wherever he led. 

I 

If we are to share the happy and adventurous 
career with Jesus, we must dare to cut loose entirely 
from sin and accept him, not only as our Saviour, 
but as our Lord and Master. 

In South Africa there is a pagan tribe called the 
Red Kafirs. These people have the peculiar habit 
of rubbing their skin with fat and red clay, which 
makes them look like polished bronze. Those who 
are clothed wear red garments. The missionaries tell 
us that red is worn as a sign of their pagan religion. 
When one of these Red Kafirs becomes a Christian, 
the first token of it is that he puts off his red gar- 
ment — that is his open confession of this renuncia- 
tion of his pagan superstitions and of his acceptance 
of Christ as his Saviour and Lord. 

A missionary relates that on one occasion a woman 
clothed in her heathen garb presented herself to him 
as a candidate for baptism. He asked why she came 



38 ADVENTURES WITH JESUS 



for baptism wearing her heathen dress, and she re- 
plied that she would gladly put it off, but it was the 
only dress she had, A proper garment was provided, 
and she put off her red garment forever. So Christ 
calls to men and women now to put away the red gar- 
ments of sin and be clothed upon with the white gar- 
ments of righteousness. None need fear their sins 
are too red with iniquity, for the cheering call is: 
" Come now, and let us reason together, saith Jeho- 
vah ; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as 
white as snow ; though they be red like crimson, they 
shall be as wool." 

II 

The man who would go on adventure with Jesus 
must keep alive his curiosity of mind and heart, in 
order to feed his zest and appetite for new and inter- 
esting and glorious achievements in high living. A 
prominent physician says that the normal baby comes 
into the world with knowledge-hunger. Through his 
sense organs there enter into his tiny brain myriads 
of messages ; and his first life work, outside of nutri- 
tion and growth, is the interpretation of these mes- 
sages. Long before he can talk he is a human inter- 
rogation point. In fact, it is curiosity, knowledge- 
hunger, that enables a very small child to learn a 
language more quickly and more accurately than can 
a grown person. 

After a child has learned to talk he becomes a 
rapid-fire machine gun of queries. He is striving to 
know, and the wise parent will go a long way in 
patiently and honestly answering the questions as 



ADVENTURES WITH JESUS 



39 



they are asked. At no later period of life is there 
such a hunger for knowledge, but it is exceedingly 
important for each of us to know that as long as that 
curiosity of mind is kept alive and active, and that 
eagerness for knowledge continued, the brain con- 
tinues to grow and develop. 

What an interesting line of thought this arouses ! 
A man, in the high intellectual sense, may be said to 
be just as old and no older than his curiosity of mind. 
Many people die young intellectually, though the 
body still remains fat and flourishing. Others go on 
to old age, as it is counted by years, and the hair 
whitens and the body shows signs of weakness; but 
the mind not only retains its freshness and its power 
for the exercise of noble thinking and the portrayal 
of splendid pictures of the imagination, but grows 
and enlarges with the years. 

Where many men and women of forty seem intel- 
lectually to have reached the zenith of their mental 
powers, other men and women, like Victor Hugo, 
Gladstone, Julia Ward Howe, and many others, at 
eighty are yet as alive and progressive as in their 
youth. 

In one case the curiosity of mind was allowed to 
atrophy and die, while in the other it was kept awake 
and alert by constant use and high endeavor. 

We observe the same thing in the still loftier realm 
of the spirit, where we are dealing with those great 
dynamic forces that make for high and holy charac- 
ter. In the realm of sainthood we must be obedient 
to the same law as in the realm of the intellect. As 
curiosity is to the mind, so the zest and appetite of 



40 ADVENTURES WITH JESUS 



the spirit is all that is needed for continued growth 
in goodness. Do you recall that puzzling one of the 
" blesseds where Jesus says in the Sermon on the 
Mount : " Blessed are they that hunger and thirst 
after righteousness ; for they shall be rilled " ? How 
clear it all is when read in the light of this thought ! 
Just as knowledge is gathered easily by the mind 
awake with curiosity, so goodness, righteousness, is 
easily obtained by the heart that has an appetite for 
it, hungers and thirsts after it. God grant us all this 
great zest for goodness! May we keep alive, both 
in mind and heart, that higher hunger of soul that 
will enable us to grow in the beautiful grace of our 
divine Lord ! How much men and women lose when 
they falter and hesitate, and do not dare to go farther 
with Jesus to scale all heights, and penetrate all the 
noble love mysteries of God where he would lead 
them. 

One of the most pitiful things in the world is to 
see a man ten years on the way as a professed Chris- 
tian, and yet not so sensitive to the breath of evil, 
nor so hungry for the reading of the Bible, nor so 
quick to respond in gratitude to God, nor so earnest 
in desire to win souls to Christ, as at the entrance 
of the journey. The moral and spiritual appetite has 
been allowed to atrophy through neglect and disuse. 

My friends, let us arise and go on to holy adven- 
tures with Christ, and we shall grow and expand in 
high and saintly personality. Glorious careers, like 
that of Paul, who was the chief of sinners, yet be- 
came the greatest saint of his age; or the fiery- 
tempered John, who became the disciple whom Jesus 



ADVENTURES WITH JESUS 41 



loved, have not exhausted, but only illustrate, the pos- 
sibilities of growth into holiness of life. 

It is the open road, the open secret of goodness. 
Thank God, we have in us the power and possibili- 
ties of growth if we but hearken to the call of the 
adventurous Christ and go to the limit where he will 
lead. 

Some men are great by an inborn strength, 

By a gift and a gift alone; 
And some may leap at a single length 

From a hovel to a throne. 
But some — and these are the choice of God — 

Must striving and patience know, 
As trees that spring from the acorned clod 

Must wrestle, and reach, and grow. 

The rose that blooms for a happy hour 

Knows only a brief, bright day — 
The morn to bud, and the noon to flower, 

And evening to pass away. 
But the strong roof beam and the ship's tall mast, 

Out there where the wild storms blow, 
In thunderous tempest and wintry blast, 

Through centuries long they grow. 

Labor, and study, and 3<earning long, 

And waging the godly strife, 
These make character tall and strong; 

These give power to life. 
There's praise for the man who swiftly wins, 

There are shouts for the man who knows, 
But these fall silent, and then begins 

The song of the man who grows. 

Ill 

The man who goes forth adventuring with Jesus 
must expect all hide-binding conventionalities to be 
broken. 

Do you remember the preparation that God gave 
to Peter in order to rid him of his racial prejudices 



42 ADVENTURES WITH JESUS 



and fit him to preach the Gospel of Christ to the 
Gentiles? Up on the roof top where he was praying 
to God (What wonderful things come to men when 
they are praying!) a great vision was unfolded to 
him — "He beholdeth the heaven opened, and a cer- 
tain vessel descending, as it were a great sheet, let 
down by four corners upon the earth: wherein were 
all manner of four-footed beasts and creeping things 
of the earth and birds of the heaven. And there 
came a voice to him, Rise, Peter ; kill and eat. But 
Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten 
anything that is common and unclean. And a voice 
came unto him again the second time, What God 
hath cleansed, make not thou common." 

And while Peter wondered, the messengers came 
from the home of Cornelius and, inspired by the 
heavenly vision, Peter dared to go forth adventuring 
with Jesus. If he had faltered or refused to go, the 
great career of Peter would have ended and gone no 
farther than the home of Simon the tanner. Your 
career may be in the same peril this very hour. 

This teaching may have great value to us at the 
present time, when the whole world is rocked with 
a strange social ferment. We must live with open 
minds that we may discern the Spirit of God work- 
ing on the hearts of men. When William and Cath- 
erine Booth cast conventionalities to the winds and 
went forth to the founding of the Salvation Army, 
only a very few rare spirits saw anything in it but 
folly; but no one doubts now that they were led by 
God in a glorious adventure with Christ. 

Let us be alert for any " new wine of the Spirit." 



; 

ADVENTURES WITH JESUS 43 

Out of this social unrest, with its multiplied currents 
and cross-currents, another world-swelling movement 
to advance the kingdom of God may come. 

Bishop Fred Fisher tells us that in Paris a young 
and enthusiastic social leader shot a challenge across 
the table to him when he said : " Where is your 
Christ? You think you follow him? I say to you 
that the real living Jesus has left your dead churches, 
and is now out in the thick of this social battle. He 
is our Leader, this Jesus that loved starving children, 
and sick women, blind men, and all our struggling 
humanity." And the Bishop says he spoke with that 
rare passion of the disciple. 

Bishop Fisher also tells us how he was shocked on 
another occasion in a crowded European labour hall 
to hear one of the passionate young speakers end an 
appealing address by quoting a vigorous poem of 
one of the modern writers, each verse of which ended 
with these daring words : " Comrade, Jesus hath his 
red card." 

What dare we say about this, but what Jesus said, 
when the disciples told him of some, not of their 
company, that cast out devils in his name? He said 
to let them alone. As this gallant young Bishop says : 
" Whether they are right or wrong in their claim, 
thousands of the bravest and best leaders in this 
economic war have sworn allegiance to Jesus as they 
understand his life and its appeal to men. And who 
among Christians would be willing to deny them his 
name? They may prove to be some of these 'other 
sheep,' which he discerns through his tears — soon to 
hear his voice and be gathered into his fold." 



44 ADVENTURES WITH JESUS 



IV 

The finest and rarest field of adventure on the 
earth is open only to those who will go the limit on 
adventures with Jesus. The missionary field is the 
most romantic realm on earth in our day. Take that 
great teeming Republic of China, with its more than 
four hundred millions of human beings. Do you re- 
member how Morrison poured out his soul for a life- 
time and saved only his interpreter, only one sheaf for 
a lifetime of toil and ministry? But others have en- 
tered into his labours and are reaping where he 
sowed. 

One of the most thrilling things in the literature 
of recent years is an address by a cultivated, 
scholarly Chinese gentleman, a Christian gentleman 
of China, about winning China for Christ. Let me 
read to you a single burning and illuminating para- 
graph. Remember this is not an Englishman nor an 
American speaking, but a Chinaman, Dr. Cheng 
Ching Yi, and this is what he says : 

" The whole of Christian propaganda is the great- 
est adventure in the world. Are we bold enough to 
face the difficult situation? Under such circum- 
stances are we daring enough to capture the un- 
paralleled opportunity of taking China for Christ? 
Are we brave enough to tackle the (humanly speak- 
ing) impossibility, relying on the assurance that there 
is nothing impossible to God ? Are we determined to 
act in accordance with the times, and do our utmost 
to win China for the Lord? Remember, friends, my 
heart is burning within me as I speak. The thought 
of a failure on our part to rise to the occasion for a 



ADVENTURES WITH JESUS 45 



forward, immediate, nation-wide spiritual movement 
makes me shudder. Look wherever you like; such 
a definite step must be taken. Look at the compas- 
sionate Lord on high; look at the opposing forces 
below; look at the need of our fellow men around 
us; look at the personal obligation within us; and 
there seems to be no way out of it. We are in it, 
all of us, and no backing out is possible. Let us rise 
up to the call, and in the beauty of the Lord of Hosts 
attempt the impossible thing — seeing in the near 
future Christ for China, and China for Christ." 

Could there be anything more heartening than that, 
when the greatest danger of the future of humanity 
is the threat of an alignment of the great colored 
races of the world against the white races for the 
domination of mankind? 

If we shall only be wise enough to keep our cast- 
off liquor traffic out of China and India and Africa, 
and give the missionaries and the native Christians 
like Dr. Cheng Ching Yi, a chance to pursue their 
holy adventure with Jesus, the world will be safe not 
only for democracy, but for humanity. 

V 

And, finally, we must not lose sight of the cheering 
fact that those who go forth to glorious adventures 
with Jesus experience the noblest joys of life. It is 
not the hardship that the adventurer thinks of and 
dwells on, it is the conquest and the glory of achieve- 
ment. Listen to the song of the Panama Canal 
builders : 



46 ADVENTURES WITH JESUS 



" Got any rivers they say are uncrossable ? 

Got any mountains you can't tunnel through? 
We specialize in the wholly impossible, 
Doing the thing that no one can do." 

Think of Stanley's joy when he found Livingstone 
in the heart of Africa, when it was indeed the " dark 
continent " ! Think of Greeley's joy when, after a 
lifetime of effort, he stood at the north pole — or of 
Shackeiton's on the south. What did cold or hunger 
count for to those men? Less than nothing. Think 
of the joy of a man like Dr. Gorgas, who could seize 
a malignant bacillus in his giant-like grasp and free 
a nation of yellow fever. 

But the highest of all joys comes to those who go 
forth with utter unselfishness of spirit to share with 
Jesus Christ in the adventures of divine love wher- 
ever he shall lead. 

An English writer, wandering in a Sussex church- 
yard, found on a gravestone these valiant and glori- 
ous words: "They strove with their faces to the 
morning sun, and up to their God." 

May it be in words as valiant and joyous as those 
that our friends shall find appropriate description of 
our own life adventures ! 



IV 



THE HAPPY FORTUNE OF THE GOOD- 
WILL MEN 

" Peace on earth to men of good will." — Luke 2:14 (a 
rendering by some modern scholars). 

THE Standard Version of the Bible generally 
accepted renders the fourteenth verse of 
the second chapter of Luke, giving the 
song of the angels to the shepherds on the night of 
the birth of Jesus : " Glory to God in the highest, 
and on earth peace, good-will toward men." Some 
modern scholars of high standing assure us that this 
oft-quoted song may be well translated without 
straining the text : " Glory to God in the highest, 
and peace on earth to men of good-will." 

This version of the song awakens a new and ex- 
ceedingly interesting train of thought which seems 
to me well worth our careful study. 

Certain it is that peace, in its deepest sense, can 
never come to any one who has not the spirit of good- 
will, and peace has been coming to the men of good- 
will in all parts of the world wherever Christ has 
been accepted and obeyed as the personal Saviour of 
men. " Peace on earth," in the sense of stopping all 
wars among men, seems as far away now as when 
the angels sang to the shepherds. We have just 
passed through the most destructive war humanity; 

47 



48 FORTUNE OF THE GOOD-WILL MEN 



has ever known, and at this moment twenty-two wars 
of a smaller scope are raging in the world, any one 
of which would have been a serious war in those 
simpler days of the coming of Jesus. But, in this 
new sense, the angelic promise has been fulfilled in 
multitude's of instances, and is being gloriously ful- 
filled in every land on earth in some souls to-day. 
The words of Scripture will always be true that those 
who " live by the sword will perish by the sword " ; 
but it will also be true, in the highest and truest 
sense, that the " good-will men " will enjoy the 
divinely promised peace of the angel's song. 

Some people go through the world sowing the 
seeds of strife, even when they have no conscious 
purpose of doing so. Their very natures make peace 
impossible where they are. 

A few years ago there was a mysterious outbreak 
of typhoid fever cases in New York City. For some 
time the health authorities were unable to trace them 
to the source of infection. Finally they ran them 
down to a woman employed as a cook, who was car- 
rying around typhoid germs, to which she herself was 
immune, but which played havoc with other people. 

There are many people who carry the germs of 
cynicism and hate in the very spirit of their minds 
and hearts, and wherever they go the infection from 
their evil souls destroys peace. But the man of good- 
will will find his own kind wherever his footsteps 
may wander. Edwin Markham puts it in graphic 
setting : 

Once where a prophet in a palm shade lay, 
\ A traveler stopped at noon one dusty day, 



FORTUNE OF THE GOOD-WILL MEN 49 

And asked, " What sort of people in this land ? " 

The prophet answered, lifting happy hand: 

"Well, friend, what sort of people whence you came?" 

"What sort?" the traveler snorted — "knaves and fools!" 

" Well," said the prophet, " When your fervor cools, 

You'll find the people here the very same." 

Another stranger at the dusk drew near, 

And paused to ask, "What sort of people here?" 

"Well, friend, what were the people whence you came?" 

" Ah," smiled the stranger, " they were good and wise." 

" Then," cried the prophet, laughing in his eyes, 

" You'll find the people here the very same." 

I 

An active faith in the good-will of God toward 
us is essential to our own confidence and peace. To 
the man who never doubts the good-will of God, the 
spirit of good-will toward his fellow men comes easy. 
Faith in God is the soil out of which all the finest 
fruits of the soul of man must ever spring. One of 
the greatest and noblest expressions of that lofty 
faith is in the prophetic book of Habakkuk. 

The story is told of Benjamin Franklin that he, at 
one time while he was the American Ambassador at 
the French Court during or following the American 
Revolution, produced an old, worn book and read a 
passage to a glittering company assembled in a 
famous salon. The most cultured men and women 
of France were enthusiastic over the majestic beauty 
of the lines and inquired what genius had produced 
them. " He was a man who lived in Asia twenty- 
four hundred years ago. His name was Habakkuk," 
said Franklin. He had read to that brilliant company 
the last chapter of the book of Habakkuk. It is in 
the form often used in Hebrew poetry, a choral song 



50 FORTUNE OF THE GOOD-WILL MEN 

and response, with a final response from the full 
chorus. It is a marvelous expression of faith in the 
power and goodness of God. 
The first choir sings: 

" God cometh from Teman, 

And the Holy One from Mount Paran, 
His glory covereth the heavens, 

And the earth is full of his praise. 
And his brightness is as the light. 

Before him goeth the pestilence, 
And fiery bolts go forth at his feet. 

He standeth and shaketh the earth ; 
He beholdeth and driveth asunder the nations; 

And the eternal mountains are scattered, 
The everlasting hills do bow; 

His ways are everlasting." 

The second choir responds : 

"Thou dost cleave the earth with rivers; 

The mountains see thee and are afraid; 
The tempest of waters passeth by; 

The deep uttereth his voice, 
And lifteth up his hands on high ; 

The sun and the moon stand still in their habitation 
At the light on thine arrows as they go, 

At the shining of thy glittering spear. 
Thou dost march through the land in indignation, 

Thou dost thresh the nations in anger." 

And then all the choirs unite in what may be called 
the Hallelujah Chorus of the Old Testament : 

" For though the fig^ tree shall not blossom, 

Neither shall fruit be in the vines ; 
The labour of the olive shall fail, 

And the fields shall yield no meat; 
The flock shall be cut off from the fold, < 

And there shall be no herd in the stalls: 
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, 
I will joy in the God of my salvation." 

The man whose faith rests upon God's good-will 
toward men in that way, will not find it hard to him- 
self maintain a spirit of good-will toward his fellows. 



FORTUNE OF THE GOOD-WILL MEN 51 



II 

We must all feel that to realize this God-given 
message sent to the shepherds of Judea by the angels 
requires that we shall have more than a mere kindly 
feeling toward humanity — a sort of lazy, inactive 
neutrality that masquerades under the name of good- 
will. Men and women often get a reputation for 
good-heartedness and good-will that is not deserved. 
It is nothing but indolence mixed with a desire for 
popularity and favor with everybody. Scratch 
through the bark of such people's indolent geniality 
and you find that what passed for good-will, and 
good-heartedness, was all selfishness. The words 
good-will signify a positive, aggressive determination 
of the will to do good in dealing with our fellow men. 

When John, the beloved disciple, on the Isle of 
Patmos, was receiving those wonderful visions that 
make the Book of Revelation in our New Testament, 
the Laodicean Church was made up of an indolent, 
neutral, useless type of good people. They were the 
kind of good people, too often met in our own day, 
who are goody-goody — in plain English, good for 
nothing in the real work of a Christian church. In 
the messages which Christ sent through his beloved 
friend, St. John, to the churches — for he sent a spe- 
cial message to each of the great churches of that 
day — the church of Ephesus, the church of Smyrna, 
the church of Pergamos, the church of Thyatira, the 
church of Sardis, the church of Philadelphia — he 
dealt out commendation or warning or rebuke faith- 
fully as the occasion demanded. But when the Mas- 
ter came to the church of Laodicea this is what he 



52 FORTUNE OF THE GOOD-WILL MEN 



told the loving but loyal St. John to say : " I know 
thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot ; I would 
thou wert cold or hot. So because thou art luke- 
warm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spue thee out 
of my mouth." 

One of the newer poets, with a grace that reminds 
us of the " Lotos Eaters " of Tennyson, but with far 
greater moral passion, taking these Scripture lines 
for his text sings with real poetic fervor and spiritual 
insight of the Laodiceans of our own time. He puts 
into the mouths of these indolent, neutral, wishy- 
washy claimants of good-will these stinging lines of 
confession : 

"We are the Laodiceans: we know not the ice nor the 
fire; 

We have never sprung to the edge of doom at the call 

of a brave desire ; 
We have basked in the tepid noontides; we have drawn 

an even breath; 
We have never felt between our lips the savors of life or 

death. 

" We are the Laodiceans, loved not by God or man ; 
We boast in our ease or riches, and take what praise we 
can; 

No love shall sear us with longing, no grief shall turn us 
to stone; 

We shall not dance to the pipes of Spring, nor answer to 
joy or moan. 

" We are the Laodiceans ; when God's great summons came, 
Cleaving the hosts of living men, as with a line of fame, 
We were tossed aside like vagrant leaves at an idle wind's 
behest, 

For we knew not the ways of battle, and we found not 
the ways of rest. 

"We are the Laodiceans: we have slight fear of hell, 
For even its master can not say, " Ye have done my bid- 
ding well." 



FORTUNE OF THE GOOD-WILL MEN 53 



And what for us would heaven be, with its endless lift 
and range? 

We are doomed to a passionless limbo, that knows not 
life nor change. 

" We are the Laodiceans : we care not for wrong nor 
right ; 

We have no part in a world's defense, no cause for which 
to fight; 

The fruits of the ground are sweet; we would rest in 

our garden-places, 
But God himself shall drive us out, between the black 

star-spaces. 

" We are the Laodiceans : our fight is with only those 
Who would send us to burning deserts, or whelm us in 
alien snows; 

We feel no lure of march nor flight; we taste not hope 
nor shame; 

And we die, in our visionless Eden, of a curse without 
a name." 

God save any of us from having to make at last a 
confession like that! Such people never know the 
keen, holy contentment that comes from the assur- 
ance that we have done our part loyally in the strug- 
gle for God's great and righteous causes. Such con- 
tentment, which is really the beginning of heaven in 
the human soul, Paul tells us has to be learned in 
campaigns of positive good-will toward men, for 
whom he dared to be stoned and shipwrecked and 
beaten with rods. But in the midst of all these, Paul 
says : " I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, 
therewith to be content." Paul was one of the finest 
specimens of a good-will man the world has ever 
seen, and its expression brought him into keen peace 
and contentment. 

Just now the world is suffering from the violent 
throes of a desperate spirit of discontent. Like a 
foul and poisonous gas, the spirit of discontent seems 



54 FORTUNE OF THE GOOD-WILL MEN 



to have tainted the very atmosphere in all parts of 
the world. And in many lands it is producing the 
most disastrous results, both in the lives of individ- 
uals and of nations. It is a time for the sincere 
good-will men and women of the world to guard their 
own intellectual and moral health, and so rest and 
steady their souls on the goodness of God that the 
genuine good-will in their hearts and in their deeds 
shall enable them to show forth their inward peace 
and contentment to a discontented world. 

On every hand there is a fruitful field in which the 
good-will people may win the prize of peace. The 
good-will man does not need to go about criticizing 
his neighbours in order to improve them. As some 
one wisely says : " It is better to help people to 
criticize themselves than it is to criticize them." 
They will believe themselves; they ar not likely to 
believe you. The way to bring about this wholesome 
and helpful condition of self-criticism, with its ac- 
companying desire for improvement, is to show the 
spirit of sincere and persistent good-will in our own 
daily living. It was a very high tribute paid to a 
certain Christian man when one who had known him 
intimately said of him : " He never told me that I 
ought to do better, but I always came away from any 
conversation with* him wanting to do better." 

Our own homes, with the people who know us best, 
who love us most, and who are dearest to us, are a 
most fruitful field of blessing for all of us who are 
seeking to be men and women of good-will. Were 
you ever in a cold-storage plant? You enter a great 
warehouse, and huge padded doors are closed sharply 



FORTUNE OF THE GOOD-WILL MEN 55 



behind you, preventing even a breath of warm air 
from entering with you. Once inside the ice cham- 
bers, so radical is the change of atmosphere that one 
feels as though he had passed on a hot afternoon of 
a mid-summer's day into a cave in some Arctic 
winter. There, perhaps, in long rows hang hundreds 
of great beeves, frozen stiff. It requires only a few 
minutes to make you shiver as if chilled to the mar- 
row of your bones. You are glad indeed to be out 
of doors again and feel the glow of the sunshine. 

Do you know, there are too many homes where the 
atmosphere mentally and spiritually is like that? It 
is the tragedy of domestic life in multitudes of homes. 
My friends, cold-storage has no place in the home, 
where men and women and children are to live and 
grow and fit each other for heaven. It takes the 
warm sunshine of smiles, the loving caress, the tender 
embrace, the breath of kind, gentle words, and the 
dew of praise, to draw out the sweet fragrance of the 
beautiful flowers that blossom only in happy and 
grateful hearts. 

How this old world would glow with new beauty 
and take on tints of the skies if about all the pro- 
fessed Christian hearthstones of America good-will 
should have perfectly the right of way! Why take 
politeness and courtesy to the office or store and be 
so stingy with words of love and praise and sympathy 
and tender appreciation for the dear ones at home? 
When we are in social life among mere acquaintances 
or among strangers, our tongues are nimble and quick 
to fit themselves to praise or thanks for a deed well 
or courteously done. But how often a deed accom- 



56 FORTUNE OF THE GOOD-WILL MEN 



plished with even greater skill and tendered with the 
sweet grace of loving thought fulness in the home is 
received with silence as a formal matter of course ! 

The divorce courts would close to-morrow and 
never open again to any good man or woman on earth 
if every husband and wife, in the sincere spirit of 
good-will, would seek as carefully and tenderly to find 
the good points in each other, and express themselves 
as lovingly about them to their mate as they did in 
the sweetheart days before marriage. The wedded 
people who persistently continue to make love to each 
other after marriage, with the same unselfish thought- 
fulness of their comrade's happiness as before mar- 
riage, do continue to love each other with a more 
reverent tenderness, a deeper sympathy, a wider un- 
derstanding, and a more complete adoration as the 
years go by. 

Nothing will give to children such a background 
of heaven out of which to go out to a strong and 
noble career, as a home where a spirit of thoughtful 
good-will and appreciation of one another is the at- 
mosphere of the home. 

They tell us the birds have many highways through 
the skies when they pass from land to land in their 
pilgrimages to summer and winter homes. A famous 
naturalist paints a graphic picture for the imagina- 
tion in the gathering of the migratory birds of France 
for their annual flight toward Africa. It is shown 
that they have two great atmospheric highways 
which they pursue by preference — one leading over 
the Pyrenees by the principal passes in Spain, and 
thence by the Strait of Gibraltar ; and the other skirt- 



FORTUNE OF THE GOOD-WILL MEN 57 



ing the Alps, and passing down the whole length of 
Italy. As the season advances the birds may be seen 
converging from Western, Central and Southern 
France toward the Pyrenean passes. Sometimes the 
same species, such as the chaffinch, divide into two 
parties, which some observers claim to be able to dis- 
tinguish by the character of their songs, one taking 
the Spanish and the other the Italian route. Each 
species has its favorite way, depending on the supply 
of the kind of food it prefers. The bullfinch follows 
the ranges of low hills; the blackbird keeps to the 
vineyards; and still others follow the water-courses 
and shore lines. And so the birds have many high- 
ways by which they reach their land of dreams. But 
it is not so with human souls. Man has but one sure 
highway from earth to heaven, and that is the Christ- 
blazed path of good-will. God guide us all therein! 



Y 



SUN-FACING LIVES 

"There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? 
Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us." — 
Psalms 4:6. 

SAINT IZAAK WALTON, the patron saint of 
all thoughtful and joyous anglers for all time, 
of which number I have rejoiced to claim my 
right to membership these many years, says that in 
fishing in a stream on a bright day the fisherman 
must " always face the sunny side of the stream." 
Says the quaint old angler : " Never stand so that the 
sun will cast, your shadow across the water." 

The wisdom of that advice immediately appeals to 
us. Fish are so shy and timid that even the darken- 
ing of the water about them by a falling shadow will 
often drive them away. But like many of the say- 
ings of the good old angler, it may be given a much 
deeper meaning. In the wider stream of life, where 
we angle for success and happiness, it is vastly im- 
portant that we face the sunlight and do not throw a 
disturbing shadow upon others. 

The Psalmist declares in our text, as in many other 
Psalms, that God is our sun, and it is when the sun- 
light of the face of God shines upon us that good 
things come to us and through us to our fellows. 
Joaquin Miller, our old Oregon poet, means the 

58 



SUN-FACING LIVES 



59 



same thing in his beautiful song, "The Fortunate 
Isles": 

" You sail and you seek for the Fortunate Isles, 
The old Greek Isles of the yellow bird's song? 
Then steer straight on through the watery miles, 

Straight on, straight on, and you can't go wrong. 
Nay, not to the left, nay, not to the right, 
But on, straight on, and the isles are in sight, 
The old Greek Isles where the yellow birds sing 
And life lies girt with a golden ring. 

"These Fortunate Isles, they are not so far; 

They lie within reach of the lowliest door; 
You can see them gleam by the twilight star; 

You can hear them sing by the moon's white shore — 
Nay, never look back! Those leveled gravestones — 
They were landing steps : they were steps unto thrones 
Of glory for souls that have gone before, 
And have set white feet on the fortunate shore. 

"And what are the names of the Fortunate Isles? 

Why, Duty and Love and a large Content. 
Lo! these are the isles of the watery miles, 

That God let down from the firmament. 
Aye ! Duty, and Love and true man's trust ; 
Your forehead to God though your feet in the dust. 
Aye! Duty to man, and to God meanwhiles, 
And these, O friend, are the Fortunate Isles." 

The keynote of a true human life is joy of the 
noble kind which one may find at its best only when 
receiving it as the good gift of God and in the happy 
consciousness of God's presence. The Bible declares 
that the joy of the Lord is our strength. 

There is a little book called u Good Cheer" writ- 
ten by Humphrey J. Desmond, in which the author 
combats the popular notion that gravity is necessarily 
religious and that laughter is irreligious. He calls 
attention to the fact that Faber, who wrote some of 
our great hymns, in one of his sermons argues in 



60 



SUN-FACING LIVES 



favour of a sense of humour as an aid to spiritual life. 
The saints sometimes joked; in fact, St. Gregory in- 
forms us that St. Basil was a great joker. St. Fran- 
cis was nicknamed by his contemporaries as " Brother 
Ever-glad " ; and St. Felix was known by his friends 
as " St. Ever-joyful." It is said that it lifted men's 
hearts to meet St. Philip Neri, and even after his 
death sad people went to his home to get rid of 
melancholy. 

" The heart that is joyful is better disposed to re- 
ceive grace than the heart that is filled with sorrow," 
said St. Bonaventura; St. Francis de Sales believed 
that the human heart needs joy, and " without joy it 
cannot be at rest " ; St. Andrew held that the soul is 
not pure when the face is gloomy ; " Let nothing dis- 
turb and nothing affright thee," writes St. Theresa; 
and in the same spirit are these words of St. Ber- 
nard : " Nothing can work me damage except my- 
self ; the evils that I sustain I carry about with me, 
and never am a real sufferer but by my own fault." 

The Bible amply justifies the joyousness of these 
men who lived the holiest lives of their day, none of 
whom counseled a religion of sadness or fear. " Re- 
joice, ye just," and " Let not your heart be troubled, 
nor let it be afraid," for joy is among the fruits of 
the Spirit, and faith in God casteth out fear. The 
Bible is honeycombed with such radiant points of 
light. 

II 

The true meaning and the richest and most satis- 
fying joys of life can never be found on the surface. 



SUN-F AGING LIVES 



Only those learn the great secret who live deeper 
than the life of things in the life of the Spirit. In 
this day so given over to materialism it is hard for 
men to appreciate that wonderful sentence of Jesus: 
" A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of 
things he possesseth.' , The world's beatitudes always 
begin " Blessed is he that hath," but the beatitudes 
of Jesus begin " Blessed is he that is"} 

Life is full of illustrations of the truth of Christ's 
words. 

Not long ago a man died in Paris leaving behind 
him a fortune of a hundred millions of dollars. I 
have never heard it charged against him that he was 
an idler, a waster, a profligate, or unjust and dis- 
honest in his manner of acquiring or using his wealth. 
On the contrary, he was an honest toiler, a wise and 
prudent administrator, of great executive ability in 
carrying on the necessary work of the world. And 
yet William K. Vanderbilt was never a happy man. 
Shortly before his death he made this confession in a 
newspaper interview : 

" My life was never destined to be quite happy. It was 
laid along lines which I could not foresee, almost from 
earliest childhood. It has left me with nothing to hope for, 
with nothing definite to seek or strive for. Inherited wealth 
is a big handicap to happiness. It is as certain death to 
ambition as cocaine is to morality. If a man makes money, 
no matter how much, he finds a certain happiness in its 
possession, for in the desire to increase his business he has 
a constant use for it. But the man who inherits it has none 
of this. The first satisfaction, and the greatest, that of 
building the foundation of a fortune, is denied him. He 
must labour, if he does labour, simply to add to an over- 
sufficiency." 



*62 SUN-FACING LIVES 

One cannot read this without seeing that this intel- 
ligent and powerful man had never even glimpsed the 
deep possibilities of the joys and triumphs of life 
above and beyond the life of things in the realm of 
the soul. It is not hard to find that road of the su- 
preme joy in life's simple and quiet ways if we open 
our hearts to God's coming. 

" How quietly God comes to you and me ! 

In slippered feet 

As seemeth meet 
To one who will not press his company. 

"Not in the earthquake nor the hurricane 
Elijah heard 
A whispered word 
Whose healing made him strong again and sane. 

"God seems to hide, and so he bids us seek. 
He makes as though 
He'd farther go. 
We must constrain him, he's so mild and meek! 

"And so it easy is our God to miss. 

Be still and know ! 
'Tis ever so. 
He comes as dew and as the zephyr's kiss. 

" Oh, ye who say — Our God is hard to find, 
Remember love, 
From heaven aboye, 
Is very like the common, human kind. 

"All love comes to us shod in slippered feet. 
Love's gentle press, 
Its soft caress, 
Forever shun the uproar of the street. 

"Be patient, heart; expectant, listening ear. 
Perhaps to-night, 
In shadowed light, 
The God you seek will quietly appear ! " 



SUN-FACING LIVES 



63 



III 

Worry, one of the supreme joy-killers of the 
world, comes through our turning our faces away 
from the sun. If we keep our eyes fastened on the 
countenance of Divine Love, innumerable reasons for 
thanksgiving suggest themselves and a thankful heart 
melts worry as the sunshine at noonday melts snow. 

Maltbie Babcock, whose short life which faced the 
sun so loyally that he himself became blessed sun- 
shine to many tempted souls, once said : 

"Look for the goodness of the Lord in your own life. 
The dross and slag of life accumulate ; smoke is in the air ; 
flakes of soot fall softly upon us; life can easily seem a 
poor affair. But life is full of dignity, grace and joy, full 
of opportunity for goodness and kindness. Will you wait 
till the sunset hour gilds its passing? Will you wait till 
death stirs your imagination and you see, but too late, how 
much beauty and half-appreciated joy could have been a 
blessing? Look for God's goodness to-day. Only so will 
you come to see life in its fullness. The disagreeable may 
be forced upon you; but your mind will instinctively find 
an offset Sweet uses will shine out of adversity. You will 
find 'Tongues in the trees, books in the running brooks, 
sermons in stones, and good in everything.' In every storm 
you will hear your Saviour's voice, ' It is I.' Every day 
will have sufficient testing; but the word of Jesus will hold 
good: 'My grace is sufficient for thee.' You will see the 
sterner side of life, the rock-like structure of righteousness 
with the Puritan ; but also life's gentler side with the Mystic, 
the green pasture and still waters of Peace. In your life 
mercy and truth shall meet, righteousness and peace shall 
kiss each other. The world of law shall yet be a world of 
love. You shall hear it thunder at Sinai ; but you shall 
hear the angel voices at Bethlehem singing the glory of the 
God of love, heralding to all mankind tidings of peace and 
good will." 

Worry, which comes from over-sensitiveness, 
usually comes from looking at ourselves instead of 



64 



SUN-FACING LIVES 



God. When we center our thoughts on ourselves and 
think we must have our own way, we are mortgaged 
to a thousand worries. 

A small boy wailed, " Mother, my tooth is sore ! 
It hurts when I scrunch down on it ! " 

The mother patiently answered : " Then don't 
scrunch down on it." 

" But," said the boy, " I want to ! It feels kinder 
good when it hurts." 

How many people like to " scrunch down " on the 
sore spot in their lives ! How we do coddle our aches 
and pains ! We put our ills under the microscope to 
make them look bigger. We roll our morsels of bit- 
terness under our tongue instead of swallowing them 
as quickly as possible, and look in the glass to see 
what ugly faces we can make. We persist in living 
over again in memory our uncomfortable experiences, 
as if once was not enough to be troubled by them. 
Most of life's sores would soon heal if we would stop 
scrunching down on them. Let us stop all such folly 
and give each to-day to visioning the brightest side 
possible for its duties and its burdens.-^ 

" To-day, whatever may annoy, 
The word for me is joy, just simple joy; 
The joy of life; 

The joy of children and of wife; 

The joy of bright blue skies; 

The joy of rain; the glad surprise 

Of twinkling stars that shine at night; 

The joy of winged things in their flight; 

The joy of noonday, and the tried, 

True joyousness of eventide; 

The joy of labor and of mirth; 

The joy of air, and sea, and earth — 

The countless joys that ever flow from Him 



SUN-FACING LIVES 65 

i 

Whose vast magnificence doth dim 

The lustrous light of day, 

The lavish gifts divine upon our way. 

Whate'er there be of sorrow 

I'll put off till to-morrow, 

And when to-morrow comes, why, then 

'Twill be to-day and joy again ! " 

IV 

This facing the sun will make good in the most 
trying experiences of life. Trouble only makes men 
stronger and grander and finer in every way if a man 
faces the sun and lives in the consciousness of God's 
presence. Through all the centuries Job is proof 
positive of this statement. First, Job lost his prop- 
erty that he had become accustomed to, and had de- 
pended on for the comfort of his old age — an exceed- 
ingly hard and bitter experience, as some of us know 
full well. But Job stayed close to God and kept his 
faith. Then he lost his loved ones, which to a noble 
soul like Job's is a much greater loss than the loss 
of property. Then came the loss of his health, which 
in many ways is one of the very hardest trials that 
human beings are called upon to endure. But Job's 
confidence remained steadfast. He kept so close to 
God that he could see his face and talk with him 
through it all. He " rent his robe, and shaved his 
head, and fell down upon the ground and wor- 
shipped." Thank God for the man who, when 
money is gone and children are gone and health is 
gone, faces the sun, though it is from the ground, 
and worships his God. You cannot destroy a man 
like that. 

In order that no man through all the ages might 



66 



SUN-FACING LIVES 



say that his case was worse than Job's, Satan was 
permitted to go the limit in testing him. Frederick 
Shannon, one of the sweetest preachers of modern 
times, who calls Job " Trouble's big brother," says : 

As if Job's troubles were not enough, he was given for 
good measure a thin-brained, tongue-lashing wife! "Dost 
thou still hold fast thine integrity?" — hear her piping 
scream across the years — " renounce God, and die." But 
Job was equal to even this emergency. " What ? " he asked, 
" shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we 
not receive evil ? " In other words, God can do no wrong. 
Even evil is pregnant with good to a soul that loves God. 
" Though he slay me, yet will I trust him." How can a 
man like that be thrown down? He cannot! Toss him 
wherever you choose, he will put in his appearance, finely 
groomed and spiritually flourishing, on the other side of the 
universe. Job was bigger than his trouble. 

Job was a revelation of God's love to his friends 
and to countless millions all the way down to our 
day, and will be until the end of time. Job is a Bible 
written to sorrowing and tried souls. So we, if we 
live in the sunshine of God's face, shall be a Bible of 
blessing to many who watch our lives. 

V 

The secret of being a constant benediction to others 
is to live ourselves in the conscious presence of God, 
with the light of the Sun of Righteousness shining 
in our faces. This old world is very sick, and many 
quack nostrums are offered for its cure ; but the one 
thing that can heal all earth's maladies is the sun- 
shine of God's infinite love in conquest of the sinful 
heart of mankind. Every one of us will be aiding 
in the cure of the whole world's sickness if we will 



V 



SUN-FACING LIVES 



67 



keep our own faces and hearts full of the sunshine 
from the face of God. 

(A delegate from England to the Pilgrim Tercen- 
tenary in Boston was traveling on a St. Lawrence 
steamer when he suddenly remembered the tragic cir- 
cumstances connected with the death of Silvester 
Home, the famous English preacher, some years ago 
on a St. Lawrence steamer. He went to the captain 
and said : " Do you happen to remember, Captain, 
the death, a few years ago, on one of these St. Law- 
rence river boats, of an English preacher named Sil- 
vester Home?" The captain answered quietly, but 
with deep feeling : " I certainly do remember. It 
was on this very boat." He then proceeded to show 
the English visitor the precise spot where the saintly 
man fell. " I chanced to see him fall and ran toward 
him. He died instantly. His wife, holding his head, 
called out in agony : * Are you dead ? ' An instant 
later she turned to me : * Captain, is my husband 
really dead ? ' I shook my head, ' yes/ and ordered 
some sailors to carry the body into my cabin. ' Come 
on in, I want you to see the cabin.' " As the minister 
entered the captain's room he noticed as one of the 
most conspicuous objects in the room a beautifully 
framed photograph of the deceased prophet. Then 
he resumed the story : " But when we brought his 
body into this cabin, that was not the end of the tale. 
Mrs. Home came in and immediately kneeled down 
beside his body. I was standing near. She turned 
to me and commanded, ' Captain, you must kneel.' I 
was not a kneeling man — in fact, I was altogether 
indifferent to religion. But I hesitated only a second, 



OS 



SUN-F AGING LIVES 



then knelt. Her prayer was the simplest, most beau- 
tiful, most natural prayer I ever heard. She men- 
tioned all the children by name, the church and 
various causes that had been dear to her husband's 
heart. Do you know, I have never been able to 
escape from the prayer. It brought me to Christ. 
I am now a professed Christian, and whenever I can 
I attend the little church of which I have become a 
member. I was Silvester's Home's last convert." 

I said to myself when I read that heart-warming 
story : " No, Captain, you are mistaken ; you were 
not Silvester Home's convert, you were his wife's 
convert. It was her triumphant faith in the time of 
a great emergency that conquered your soul. If she 
had given up to her grief, you would never have been 
converted through the death of the good man. But 
you saw the light in her face which she received from 
the face of her God." 

Thank God, it is possible for each of us to live a 
sun-facing life and be a sunshine bringer to those 
who live about us. ^ 

f Years ago, when that Scotch saint, Dr. Andrew 
Bonar, was at one of the great Northfield meetings, 
and had, in a very tender spiritual address, lifted his 
hearers up to heavenly heights, Mr. Moody arose and 
said : " Dr. Bonar, these people would like to know 
how you live this victorious life about which you 
have been preaching. Tell us your experience." 
After considerable urging, Dr. Bonar said, with 
great hesitation : " I do not like to speak of myself, 
but for fifty years I have had access to the throne 
of grace." 



SUN-FACING LIVES 



69 



That was all the old saint had to say, but it told 
the whole story. 

Blessed be God ! We too may have access to the 
throne of grace. } 



yi 

THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF GOD 

"Great is the mystery of godliness." — I Timothy 3:16. 
" God is love."— i John 4:16. 

IT is evident from these texts, which are in per- 
fect harmony with the spirit of Bible teaching 
throughout the Old and New Testaments, that 
the great mystery of godliness is the mystery of love. 
All the unsearchable mysteries of the personality and 
doings of God are the mysteries of love. From the 
very beginning God's dealings concerning man have 
been clothed about and upon by the divine mysteries 
of love. 

Have you read the story of the creation of man 
recently? It has been a long time, has it not, since 
you read it? It is so brief, let us read it now. 

The creation of the world was a finished task. 
Out of chaos order had come to pass. Out of dark- 
ness light filled the earth and the sky with glorious 
illumination. Continents and islands lifted them- 
selves out of the great deep. The green grass and 
the waving trees and beautiful flowers adorned the 
land. Giant mountain ranges towered in the distance 
to make watersheds to give permanency to the fer- 
tility of valleys and plains. Great beasts roamed the 
prairies, or hid themselves in jungles and forests. 
The tides had yielded to the magnetic touch of the 

70 



THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF GOD 



71 



moon and filled the harbours of the continents with 
their refreshing fullness of blessing. The great and 
small fishes disported themselves in the sea, and 
many of them went on voyages of adventure up the 
channels of the great rivers toward their sources in 
the mountains. 

The birds had come to fill their place in this gor-, 
geous new world — eagle for the rocky cliff, ducks 
and geese in lake and bay, and the innumerable 
songsters for the forests and the glades. 

It was a wholesome, beautiful world, fresh from 
the hand of the good God. From mountain top to 
the depth of the sea, from the deepest canyon to the 
loftiest constellation of stars in the sky that roofed 
it in, it was the work of infinite wisdom, power, 
goodness, and love. 

Then God looked over this last achievement and 
said to the Council of Heaven : " Let us make man 
in our image, after our likeness; and let them have 
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl 
of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, 
/ and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the 
earth. 

" So God created man in his own image, in the 
image of God created he him; male and female 
created he them. And God blessed them, and God 
said unto them: Be fruitful, and multiply, and re- 
plenish the earth, and subdue it : and have dominion 
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the 
air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the 
earth. And God said: Behold, I have given you 
every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all 



72 



THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF GOD 



the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of 
a tree yielding seed ; to you it shall be for meat. And 
to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the 
air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, 
wherein there is life, I have given every green herb 
for meat. And God saw every thing that he had 
made, and, behold, it was very good." 

And this great God, who is love, continued to de- 
vise things for man's comfort and pleasure : " And 
the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; 
and there he put the man whom he had formed. 
And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow 
every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for 
food ; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, 
and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a 
river went out of Eden to water the garden. * * * 
And the Lord God took the man and put him into 
the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. And the 
Lord God commanded the man, saying: Of every 
tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat : but of the 
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt 
not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof 
thou shalt surely die." 

Then this father-hearted God said : " It is not good 
that the man should be alone; I will make him an 
helpmeet for him. * * * And the Lord God 
caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept ; 
and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh 
instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God 
had taken from man made he a woman, and brought 
her unto the man. And Adam said: This is now 
bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh ; she shall be 



THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF GOD 



73 



called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his 
mother and shall cleave unto his wife." 

Surely the reader of this story must be dull and 
insensitive indeed if he does not see the love of God 
seeking children to wear his own image and repro- 
duce his own character in the world he had created. 

Every true father ought to be able to understand 
the feeling in the heart of our Heavenly Father in 
the creation of man. When a man with the true 
spirit of fatherhood looks on the face of his son, 
his soul is not only filled with infinitely tender com- 
passion and love, but with a great and holy desire 
that his son may carry all that is noble and good in 
himself on to the future, and, if possible, realize 
greater achievement than himself. 

Sometimes the skeptic says : " Christ was not the 
wonderful exception that Christians say he was. He 
was a great moralist, not unlike Confucius ; and, in- 
deed, he was indebted to moralists of the past for 
his principles. The talk of his originality as a world 
teacher is unfounded." 

But it is easy to see how quickly that criticism 
falls to the ground under investigation. M. Ells- 
worth Olsen suggests that the humblest Christian 
who has an experimental knowledge of Christ feels 
in his inmost being that the Saviour is unique, divine, 
unapproached and unapproachable by any mere 
human teacher. The man whose sins have been for- 
given, and who realizes that pardon in his own con- 
sciousness, does not need to know the teaching of the 
world's seers. He had found the truth which the 



74 



THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF GOD 



noblest of them are seeking. His heart is satisfied, 
his deepest human need is met. For him there is but 
one name given under heaven whereby men may and 
must be saved. That name is Jesus. There were 
other great moral teachers before Jesus. Confucius 
put the impress of his powerful mind upon China; 
Buddha upon India; Greece also had her wise men 
during the same period, and later. They were great 
and sincere seekers after truth. They lived far 
higher and nobler lives than the men of their day. 
But when we compare them with Jesus, how great 
is the difference! 

f Confucius is the most representative of the great 
moralists of the East. He was of royal lineage, and 
at an early age attracted a large following. His 
teaching centered chiefly in the home and the family. 
His sentiments were excellent; but, as a system of 
religion, futile. There is no worship of a Supreme 
Being, no hope of life beyond death, and no promises 
to comfort the soul. Here is a condensation of his 
maxims : 

" Have no friends not equal to yourself." 
" When you have faults, do not fear to abandon 
them." 

" To nourish the heart there is nothing better than 
to make the desires few." 

" The path of duty lies in what is near, and men 
seek for it in what is remote. The work of duty lies 
in what is easy, and men seek for it in what is diffi- 
cult. If each man would love his parents and show 
due respect to his elders, the whole empire would 
enjoy tranquillity." 



THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF GOD 



75 



" There are three things which the superior man 
guards against. In youth, when the physical powers 
are not yet settled, he guards against lust. When he 
is strong and the physical powers are full of vigour, 
he guards against quarrelsomeness. When he is old 
and the animal powers are decayed, he guards against 
covetousness." j 

Now all that is very moral, but what hope for the 
man who is not the equal of Confucius? Put along- 
side these maxims of Confucius the sayings of Jesus 
and you can but feel at once how vast and vital is the 
contrast in their spirit and their power to inspire, 
uplift, and bless the souls of men. Jesus says: 

" Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see 
God." 

" Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after 
righteousness : for they shall be filled." 

" Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and 
persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil 
against you, falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be 
exceeding glad: for great is your reward in 
heaven." 

" Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon 
you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in 
heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For 
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." 

" God so loved the world that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life." 

" I am the resurrection and the life : he that be- 
lieveth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." 



76 



THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF GOD 



Here we have teaching, invitation, command and 
promise, that stir the hearts of men to the depths, 
and that have power to inspire transformations in 
human conduct wherever they are proclaimed. 

But the Love Mysteries of God have their climax 
in the gift of Christ as the supreme sacrifice of God 
for our redemption. That stupendous sacrifice re- 
veals to us the glorious, unsearchable mystery of a 
God who hates sin and yet loves the sinner with such 
divine passion that he gives his Son to be made 
sin in man's stead in order to save him. No man 
ever lived on so high a plane as did Jesus, and yet 
he never separated himself from sinners. It was one 
of the accusations of his enemies that he was a 
friend of sinners. No man hated moral impurity as 
did Jesus, and yet he did not shrink from the touch 
or the intimate conversation of fallen women. In- 
deed it may be said that the heroine of the New 
Testament is Mary Magdalene, who was redeemed 
by the mysterious love of God through the personal 
ministry of Jesus. Christ received this ransomed 
and redeemed woman into the inner circle of his most 
beloved and trusted friends, and he honoured her by 
appearing to her first of all after his resurrection. 
When he was at dinner in the house of Simon, the 
leper, and this woman, Mary Magdalene, came and 
washed his feet with her tears and dried them with 
the locks of her long waving hair, and poured on his 
head the precious and costly perfume as a token of 
her adoration, Jesus received it as from a queen 
among women, and justified his conduct in those 
wonderful words : " Her sins, which are marry, are 



THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF GOD 77 



forgiven ; for she loved much : but to whom little is 
forgiven, the same loveth little." 

With the same justice and truth it may be said 
that the hero of the New Testament is the prodigal 
son. How that matchless parable does stir the great 
heart of mankind ! Millions of men and women have 
had their deep fountain of tears unstopped as they 
have watched the folly of the wayward son separat- 
ing him from his home and the counsel and care of 
the noble, loving father. The great heart of the 
human race is moved to emotion with the simple 
story : " When he came to himself, he said : How 
many hired servants of my father's have bread 
enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I 
will arise and go to my father." And how it warms 
our hearts and brings the love mysteries of heaven 
in a gracious shower of tenderness down upon us 
as we listen to the summing up of the teaching of 
the great parable : " Joy shall be in heaven over one 
sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine 
just persons which need no repentance." 

What would Confucius, who never associated with 
people who were not his equals, have said to the par- 
able of the prodigal son? Only the glorious love 
mysteries of the infinite God could have given us this 
hero story. 

It is the supreme glory of our Christianity that it 
can take broken men and women and heal them ; that 
it can take disgraced and shamed lives and wash 
them whiter than snow, and send them forth to noble 
careers; that it can take defeated and discouraged 
souls and send them on, with renewed hope and dar- 



78 



THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF GOD 



ing, to Godlike achievement. Modern Christianity 
needs only to cling close to the great love mystery of 
the infinite God in saving sinners to win the world 
to its banners. Let us never forget that this is our 
chief business, and success in it constitutes both our 
supreme credentials as Christians and our highest 
glory. 

Ill 

The mysteries of God's love-dealings with us do 
not end with our salvation. No, thank God, his 
divine love never ceases to follow us, and intercede 
and interfere in our behalf. How wonderfully this 
was illustrated in the case of Peter ! The last time 
Peter had seen Jesus before his trial and crucifixion 
was when he had bitterly denied that he was Christ's 
disciple and friend, and that heartbreaking look of 
his Master had driven him out in shame into the 
darkness. Yet, in the great mystery of divine love, 
Christ, after his resurrection, sent a first special mes- 
sage to Peter. 

The story of God's dealings with the Hebrews, 
when Moses, as God's leader, led them out of bond- 
age in Egypt, should be full of encouragement for 
us: for though they murmured against God's provi- 
dence and love, yet that love never failed them ; and 
in the hour of pursuit, with their cruel enemies be- 
hind them and the Red Sea before them, God's love 
opened up a way through the sea for their escape. 

I bring you this message from the God of Moses. 
Some of you may be facing what seems to be a simi- 
lar place of trial in your own experience. You are 



THE LOYE MYSTERIES OF GOD 



79 



hedged about by troubles that you have no power, in 
yourself, to surmount or escape. Then, in this hour 
of your emergency, cry unto God as Moses did, and 
you will find that the glorious love mysteries of God 
will not fail in resources sufficient for your salvation. 
Even though it be another Red Sea that confronts 
you, he is sufficient for all your need. 

" Have you come to the Red Sea place in your life, 

Where, in spite of all you can do, 
There is no way out, there is no way back, 

There is no other way but through? 
Then wait on the Lord, with a trust serene, 

Till the night of your fear is gone; 
He will send the winds, he will heap the floods, 

When he says to your soul, " Go on ! " 

"And his hand shall lead you through, clear through, 

Ere the watery walls roll down; 
No wave can touch you, no foe can smite, 

No mightiest sea can drown. 
The tossing billows may rear their crests, 

Their foam at your feet may break, 
But over their bed you shall walk dry-shod 

In the path that your Lord shall make. 

" In the morning watch, 'neath the lifted cloud, 

You shall see but the Lord alone, 
When he leads you forth from the place of the sea, 

To the land that you have not known ; 
And your fears shall pass as your foes have passed, 

You shall no more be afraid; 
You shall sing his praise in a better place, 

In a place that his hand hath made." 



VII 



THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF JESUS 

" Herein was the love of God manifested in us, tha t Go d 
hath sent his only begotten Son into the world that we 
might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved 
God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be a propiti- 
ation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also 
ought to love one another." — i John 4:9-11. 

JESUS CHRIST is the most mysterious person 
who has appeared in human history. He ap- 
peared in the conversations and prophecies of 
men for thousands of years before his birth in 
Bethlehem. Every prophet of God who stood head 
and shoulders above the level of his own time, who 
peered down through the mists of the ages yet to 
come, saw Jesus looming up in the path of history 
like a great mountain of hope and blessing for 
humanity. 

The birth of Jesus is a mystery. The angel who 
appeared to Mary, the mother of Jesus, said to her : 
" Thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth 
a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be 
great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High ; 
and of his kingdom there shall be no end." And 
when Mary, awed and perplexed by the mystery of 
it all, asked how it could be possible, since she was 
a virgin, the angel messenger answered : " The Holy 
Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the 

80 



THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF JESUS 81 



Most High shall overshadow thee; wherefore also 
the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the 
Son of God." And this is a mystery above and 
beyond our human reasoning. 

I 

Christ's relation to God, the Father, is a mystery. 
In John, third chapter and sixteenth verse, Jesus de- 
scribes himself as the gift of God, saying : " God so 
loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, 
but have eternal life." He describes himself here in 
the most direct declaration as " the only begotten 
Son." 

Again Matthew records in the seventeenth chapter 
of his Gospel that on the day of transfiguration " A 
bright cloud overshadowed them ; and behold, a voice 
out of the cloud, saying: This my beloved Son, in 
whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." 

And Paul, in the opening of his letter to the Colos- 
sians, in a rapturous paragraph of thanksgiving for 
the blessing of the Christian life because God has 
taken us out of sin and darkness and " translated us 
into the kingdom of the Son of his love," goes on to 
give this wonderful description of Jesus : " Who is 
the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all 
creation; for in him were all things created, in the 
heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things 
invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principali- 
ties or powers ; all things have been created through 
him and unto him; and he is before all things, and 
in him all things consist." 



82 THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF JESUS 



You will notice here that Paul expressly declares 
that Jesus is " the firstborn of creation." Let us not 
fail to grasp this significant statement, " The first- 
born Son." Warrall's Greek translation renders it 
" The primal source of the whole creation." And 
if you would see that Paul has full guarantee for this 
amazing statement, you have only to read the words 
of Jesus himself as recorded in the eighth chapter of 
John's Gospel : " Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, 
I say unto you, before Abraham was born, I am." 
And John opens his Gospel with the marvelous 
declaration that in the very beginning Jesus was 
" with God " and " was God." Surely, " Great is the 
mystery of godliness." 

II 

The relation of Jesus to the Holy Spirit is a mys- 
tery. He was born of a woman, whose name and 
story we know, and whose family and lineage we can 
trace, but the angel of God who came as a messenger 
to Joseph, her affianced husband, said, as Matthew 
records in the opening chapter of his Gospel : " Fear 
not to take unto thee Mary thy wife ; for that which 
is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." The Holy 
Spirit is never confounded with the person of Jesus, 
but is a distinct person. Jesus said to his disciples 
in that lonely hour when these close friends were 
filled with sadness at the thought of his going away 
from them, which is described in the fourteenth 
chapter of John's Gospel : " If ye love me, ye will 
keep my commandments. And I will pray the 
Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, 



THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF JESUS 83 



that he may be with you forever, even the Spirit of 
truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it be- 
holdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know 
him; for he abideth with you, and shall be in you." 

In this paragraph we have the three persons in the 
Godhead distinctly marked, The Father, the Com- 
forter or Holy Spirit, and Jesus who is speaking.i 
These three are one in the same sense that Jesus 
meant when he said the husband and wife are one, a 
unity between distinct individualities. I do not pre- 
tend to understand it all. It is a glorious mystery 
fraught with salvation and blessed comfort to all who 
love God through Jesus Christ. 

Ill 

The mingled divinity and humanity in the person 
of Jesus is a mystery. There can be no question that 
Jesus himself claims to be divine. John records in 
the fifth chapter this claim in the most straightfor- 
ward and unequivocal words : " The hour cometh, 
and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of 
the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. For 
as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he 
to the Son also to have life in himself; and he gave 
him authority to execute judgment." 

The works of Jesus proved his divinity. Nico- 
demus declared that no man could do the miracles 
that Jesus did " except God be with him." And 
when we read the wonderful stories of the prophecies 
concerning Jesus ages before he appeared, all ful- 
filled in him and in no one else, when we trace the 
record of his life and teaching, his death and resur- 



84 THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF JESUS 



rection and ascension, we are compelled to say with 
Napoleon Bonaparte : " I know men, and I tell you 
Jesus Christ was not a man." 

And yet he was a man. Thirty times in Matthew's 
Gospel, fourteen times in Mark's, twenty-six times 
in Luke's, and eleven times in John's, are recorded 
instances where Christ calls himself " the Son of 
man." He was born into a world of sin, but was 
himself sinless; and after remaining in the world 
thirty-three years, went out of it as untarnished by 
sin as when he came. He had a human body which 
hungered and thirsted like other men. It was subject 
to pain as other human bodies. It was subject to 
weariness and exhaustion as were the bodies of his 
disciples. It sank fainting under his cross on the 
way to the crucifixion. He ate and drank, and 
walked and toiled, made friends and enjoyed them, 
was lonely for them and grieved over them like other 
men, but over it all and through it all there played 
the glorious sunshine of his divinity. It is all a 
mystery. 

Matthew records how on one occasion the Phari- 
sees were questioning about matters of marriage and 
divorce, and Jesus said : " For this cause shall a man 
leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his 
wife ; and the two shall become one flesh, so that they 
are no more two, but one flesh. What, therefore, 
God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." 
So in some mysterious manner beyond our compre- 
hension in the glorious personality of Jesus there 
was a marriage between divinity and humanity. The 
" well beloved " " Son of the Most High " came 



THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF JESUS 85 



down from heaven in all the glorious majesty of his 
divine nature and wooed our frail humanity and 
wedded it in the personality of Jesus, and there lived 
among men a man with all a man's sympathy and 
feeling for our infirmities, and at the same time all 
the wisdom and purity and power of Almighty God. 
The path of the feet of that God-man is glorious, and 
in the breath of his life is the life of mankind. 

IV 

Christ's atonement for the sins of the world is full 
of mystery. Our salvation is in Jesus. John tells 
us in the seventeenth chapter of his Gospel that Jesus 
himself said in his wonderful prayer : " This is life 
eternal, that they might know thee, the only true 
God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." 

The cross on Calvary is the climax of the mystery 
of man's salvation. The prophets saw Jesus hang- 
ing on the cross hundreds of years before he came 
to the world. Isaiah, seven hundred years before the 
three crosses were set up on Golgotha's rugged sum- 
mit, wrote that he would come and would " be de- 
spised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and 
acquainted with grief." 

In his first sermon at Nazareth, Jesus read from 
the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah : " The Spirit of the 
Lord Jehovah is upon me; because Jehovah hath 
anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; 
he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to 
proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of 
the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the 
year of Jehovah's favour, and the day of vengeance 



86 THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF JESUS 



of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint 
unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them a 
garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the 
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that 
they may be called trees of righteousness, the plant- 
ing of Jehovah, that he may be glorified." And it 
was because Jesus calmly claimed that that wonder- 
ful prophecy was fulfilled in him that they stoned 
him out of the town. 

I Jesus went to the cross for us. He could not save 
himself and us. He suffered for us. We ought to 
look on that cross oftener than we do. It would 
awaken and quicken our love. Some poet tells the 
story of its effect on a traveler passing through 
Jerusalem and by way of the cross on that awful 
mysterious day of crucifixion. Try to put yourself 
in his place as he pauses to talk with a boy whom he 
overtakes along the road : 

" Halt, lad ! May I walk on with you ? 
I'm but a stranger passing through 
These parts; but things I've seen to-day 
Have driven strength and nerve away. 
For when I stop my ears, I hear 
The throng's insulting words of jeer; 
And should I close my eyes to sleep, 
I'd see those faithful women weep. 
And all my dreams shall colored be 
Of him who cast a glance at me — 

" Of him who hangs 'twixt earth and sky 
On yonder cross, condemned to die. 
It made me faint, it drove me mad, 
To see those heartless rascals, lad, 
Drive spikes through both his hands and feet, 
Then raise the cross with measured beat, 
And roughly plunge it in a hole. 
Oh, lad, it rent my very soul ! 



THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF JESUS 87 



But yet, such things would never be 

If they had caught his glance toward me. 

"A king is he, for so I read 
Above the noble Monarch's head; 
A king with soul as white, I trow, 
As any freshly driven snow. 
I know him not, but yet his face 
Bespeaks an inner love and grace; 
And as I lingered near him there, 
I thought no other one so fair, 
Methinks the angels wept as he 
With pity cast that glance toward me. 

" Excuse my tears ; but, lad, some day, 
I too may pass this selfsame way. 
But could I see his winsome face, 
And feel the pureness of his grace, 
I'd soar above the pangs of death, 
And bravely draw my weakened breath. 
And when I meet the God of all, 
I'll shrink not from his searching call, 
If this dear One I chance to see 
In mercy looking upon me." ^ 

V 

There is a wonderful mystery in how Christ can 
supply all the needs of the Christian in whatever cir- 
cumstances he or she may be placed. Paul says in 
his letter to the Philippians : " My God shall supply 
every need of yours according to his riches in glory 
in Christ Jesus." That could be said of no other 
personality in human history, but it is magnificently 
true of Jesus. What a wonderful, mysterious per- 
sonality that can mean such different things to so 
many different people and fulfill their special needs 
in every case! A spiritual genius for searching out 
the " unsearchable riches of Christ " has brought to- 
gether a wonderful statement of the many-sided 
personality of Christ in the rich gifts for helpfulness 



88 THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF JESUS 



with which his pierced hands are filled for men. He 
shows that Jesus meets the needs of all classes and 
conditions of men. As deep answereth unto deep, 
so does he respond to the needs of each soul of man. 

" Call the roll of the world's workers and ask, ' What 
think ye of Christ ? ' Their answers amaze us by their 
revelation of this many-sidedness of our Lord. 

To the artist he is the One Altogether Lovely. 

To the architect he is the Chief Corner Stone. 

To the astronomer he is the Sun of Righteousness. 

To the baker he is the Living Bread. 

To the banker he is the Hid Treasure. 

To the biologist he is the Life. 

To the builder he is the Sure Foundation. 

To the carpenter he is the Door. 

To the doctor he is the Great Physician. 

To the educator he is the Great Teacher. 

To the farmer he is the Sower, and the Lord of the 
Harvest. 

To the florist he is the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of 
the Valley. 

To the geologist he is the Rock of Ages. 

To the horticulturist he is the True Vine. 

To the judge he is the Righteous Judge, the Judge of 
All Men. 

To the juror he is the Faithful and True Witness. 
To the jeweler he is the Pearl of Great Price. 
To the lawyer he is the Counselor, the Lawgiver, the 
Advocate. 

To the newspaper man he is the Good Tidings of Great 
Joy. 

To the oculist he is the Light of the Eyes. 
To the philanthropist he is the Unspeakable Gift. 
To the philosopher he is the Wisdom of God. 
To the preacher he is the Word of God. 
To the railroad man he is the New and Living Way. 
To the sculptor he is the Living Stone. 
To the servant he is the Good Master. 
To the statesman he is the Desire of All Nations. 
To the student he is the Incarnate Truth. 
To the theologian he is the Author and Finisher of our 
Faith. 



i 



THE LOVE MYSTEKIES OF JESUS 89 



To the toiler he is the Giver of Rest. 

To the sinner he is the Lamb of God, which taketh away 
the sin of the world. 

To the Christian he is the Son of the Living God, the 
Saviour, Redeemer, and Lord." 

Surely such a statement as that cannot fail to 
awaken in your heart the searching question, " What 
is Jesus to me? " 

VI 

( Our study of these love mysteries of Jesus will 
largely fail of its purpose if it does not quicken in 
us not only love for Christ, but love for one another, 
love for all men for whom Jesus gave himself as a 
ransom. Love is the keynote of the Christian scheme 
of humanity. Everything else will fail to bring hap- 
piness to individuals or peace to the restless nations 
of the storm-tossed world. But love will do it. The 
one armor that can make humanity safe forever from 
strife and war is love. 

" I started out one morning 
In armor gray and grim, 
I thought I had an enemy 
And went to look for him. 

" I found him, oh, I found him 
And many another more 
I had not thought of finding 
And had not known before. 

" My heart grew cold within me, 
I could not meet them all, 
I had not half the courage, 
My strength was far too small. 

"I sought for re-enforcement 

Next day, with love and prayer, 
And found new strength and courage — 
And friends, just everywhere. 



90 THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF JESUS 



"And finding, learned a lesson 
I cannot soon forget : 
I found in love and confidence 
The bravest armor yet. 

" So now I have ceased trying 
To find a cruel foe ; 
If I go armed with friendship 
I'll find true friends, I know. 

"I'd rather look for kindness 

And friendship sweet and true; 
I'd rather look for goodness 
Than evil, wouldn't you?" 

. ; 

Paul gives us the secret to his wonderful life of 
hardship and sacrifice, and finally of martyrdom, yet 
nevertheless the most wonderfully joyous, buoyant 
and triumphant life of his time, in a single simple 
statement : " The love of Christ constraineth us." 
Oh, the wonder power of the constraining love of 
Jesus ! ^ 

Some one says that there are five looks we ought 
to take every day for our spiritual safety. First, we 
should look around ; second, look inward ; third, look 
backward; fourth, look upward, and then, with face 
forward, go ahead. 

"We look around; and naught appears, 
Where'er we turn our eyes, 
But troubled hearts and bitter tears, 
Hatreds and enmities. 

" Inward we look ; and guiltiness 
And doubt and fear are there, 
A world of sad remembrances 
And bodings of despair. 

" Backward we look ; and, lo ! the cross 
Of grief and agony, 
Where the load of human shame and loss 
Was laid, dear Lord, on thee. 



THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF JESUS 91 



"And, looking up, the Throne we see 
Where thou sitt'st, reigning still 
And working out invincibly 
The purpose of thy will. 

" So forward to the dark unknown 
We look with fearless faith, 
Sure of the triumph of thy throne 
O'er sin and grief and death." 

i 

And when we do go forward in that abiding faith, 
one of the most glorious love mysteries of the Chris- 
tian life becomes real with blessings to our hearts. 
All our trials and hardships and burdens, and even 
our failures and our sins, are clothed upon with 
mercy and are transformed into memories that sing 
to us of the goodness of God and the glory of our 
Christ. 

I read recently a little poem purporting to tell how 
the birds came from the dying leaves of autumn. It 
is an Indian legend, a fairy story of course, but full 
of teaching for our theme. The poetic putting of the 
legend goes : 

" All summer long the forest trees 
Had raised their leaves for dew and breeze ; 
But colder grew the autumn sun 
And slowly fading, one by one 
The leaves came drifting down the air, 
Till soon the boughs would all be bare. 

"What sadness comes with fall of leaf! 
The great trees bent their heads in grief 
And writhed their knotted arms to call 
In prayer on Him who made them all; 
O, Gitchie Manitou above, 
Shall all be lost of these we love? 

"In thunder roll and lightning flame 
The mighty Spirit's answer came ; 
Behold, my forest, tempest-tossed, 



92 THE LOVE MYSTERIES OF JESUS 



How all may change, yet naught be lost ! 
And while they heard the Master's words 
The drifting leaves were changed to birds ! 

" The leaves of willow fluttered down 
As finches, tawny, green, and brown; 
The red and russet leaves of oak 
Became the thrush and robin folk; 
The golden birch leaves learned to fly 
As yellowbirds athwart the sky; 
While all the maple leaves that turned 
In changing hues that glowed and burned, 
Took wing across the wooded knolls 
As tanagers and orioles ! 

" So, every year when laughing spring 
Dissolves the snows, on eager wing 
The birds of forest, hill, and glen 
Return to know their trees again — 
To build their nests, to peer and stir 
Among the leaves of which they were ; 
And from the boughs where once they grew 
They sing to Gitchie Manitou." 

There is a divine, mysterious alchemy in the Holy 
Spirit's use of the salvation bought for us on the 
cross by our divine-human Saviour that can trans- 
form to the sincere Christian every dying leaf in the 
experiences of life into a singing bird of blessing and 
eternal hope. 



VIII 



THE TRAGEDY OF THE GOSPEL JESUS 
CANNOT PREACH 

" I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot 
bear them now." — John 16:12. 

WHO can tell what the disciples lost because 
they were unable to receive the great mes- 
sages that Christ had in his mind and 
heart for them, or what the world has suffered be- 
cause humanity could not receive all of heaven's mes- 
sage in Christ's day from his own lips? No one 
could have hated slavery as did the great heart of 
infinite love which throbbed with such warmth of 
sympathy in the breast of Jesus. Yet the people of 
his age could not bear it, and he lived among men 
for thirty-three years and went back to heaven with- 
out saying a word about it. All he could do was to 
plant the seed of the Golden Rule, " Whatsoever ye 
would that men should do unto you, even so do ye 
also unto them," and leave it as leaven to work in 
the dough of humanity for many centuries before it 
accomplished its work. 

Take the liquor traffic. The world of Christ's day 
was not able to bear the message that is beginning 
to be hearkened to when spoken by the earnest min- 
isters of Jesus in our own time. He could only leave 
the root principle in what he declared to be the sec- 

93 



94 THE GOSPEL JESUS CANNOT PREACH 



ond great commandment, " Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bour as thyself," and let it work itself out into the 
banishment of the saloon forever. 

So with the terrible evil of war: the world was 
full of war in Christ's day, but he uttered no protest 
against it. The world could not bear it then; and 
who is able to say how much of it it can bear now? 
It is said that shortly prior to the great world war, 
William Jennings Bryan, then our Secretary of 
State, who was at that time engaged in negotiating 
treaties of arbitration with as many nations as pos- 
sible, had a number of swords made into miniature 
plowshares of a size that would serve as paper 
weights, and these he distributed among the repre- 
sentatives of foreign governments in this country. 
Mr. Bryan deserves all honour for his sincere and 
noble efforts to bring about the end of wars, yet the 
greatest war in human history followed immediately 
in the wake of his efforts. Slavery has disappeared ; 
the liquor traffic is going; and war, too, shall come 
to an end; but it is significant that Jesus was unable 
to sound the note of crusade in his own day because 
the world was not yet able to bear it. 

I 

It is certainly wise for us to study the causes that 
hinder Jesus from opening his whole mind and heart 
to men concerning the will of God toward them. 

One of these is ignorance. No teacher in opening 
with a class of pupils the study of astronomy or 
geology or botany, or any other science, can begin 
to discourse to them as though they were already 



THE GOSPEL JESUS CANNOT PREACH 95 



educated on the subject. He must begin with simple 
discussions and progress only as fast as the knowl- 
edge of the pupils prepares the way for advanced 
lessons. And all the great joys of any great realm 
of science are like a locked treasure house until we 
have sufficient knowledge to open that realm to us. 

I was reading recently of a naturalist roaming 
about the country in search of specimens. He 
stopped near a farm house and filled his bottle with 
brackish water from a muddy pond. While doing 
this he remarked to a farm hand who stood watching 
him what wonderful things a microscope would re- 
veal in that water. " Within this pool," said he, 
" are a hundred, nay, a million universes, had we the 
£ense of the instrument by which we could apprehend 
them." 

The man with the hoe, unmoved by this remark- 
able statement, replied : " I know the water be full 
of tadpoles, but they be easy to catch." He saw only 
tadpoles where the educated naturalist saw miracles 
of nature. 

So it is in undertaking to inculcate great spiritual 
truths: it is impossible to do so if the inner eye is 
blinded, or the inner ear deafened by ignorance of 
spiritual things, and given over to only material and 
worldly thoughts. 

Do you recall that puzzling request of Elisha when 
the end of the life of Elijah drew near? His prayer 
was that a double portion of the spirit of his great 
master and teacher might be given to him. And 
Elijah's answer is equally as puzzling: " If thou see 
me when I am taken from thee," was the condition. 



96 THE GOSPEL JESUS CANNOT PREACH 



That is, if Elisha had breadth of vision to really com- 
prehend* Elijah — his faith in God, and his utter sub- 
mission to God — then it was possible for his prayer 
to be answered. 

This thought should stimulate our own study of 
the Word of God, our own habits of prayer and soul- 
communion with God, that will enlarge our spiritual 
vision in such a way and bring us into such a sym- 
pathetic and sensitive relation to God that the Holy 
Spirit will be able to communicate to us all of God's 
will for us. 

II 

Unbelief is often the dead wall through which 
Jesus is unable to preach his greater Gospel which 
he longs to proclaim to us. 

Paul, in the third chapter of his epistle to the 
Hebrews, declares that it was unbelief that kept the 
nation of Hebrew slaves, that under God's direction 
Moses and Aaron led up out of Egypt, wandering 
in the wilderness for forty years, until all died save 
two, and only their children entered into the land 
of promise. 

How often we use the story of the exodus with 
its manna let down from heaven to feed the people, 
the pillar of fire to guide them by night, and the 
pillar of cloud to lead them by day, as a signal illus- 
tration of God's providence in caring for and guid- 
ing his people through life, and do not note that it 
was a terrible tragedy that they remained in the wil- 
derness at all. God would have led them into the 
promised land, flowing with milk and honey, and 



THE GOSPEL JESUS CANNOT PREACH 97 



bearing luscious grapes of Eschol, in forty days in- 
stead of forty years, but for their unbelief. It was 
not the giants of Anak that kept them out, but their 
lack of faith in God. And so they had to take second 
best in the wilderness, when God was yearning, with 
all the Heavenly Father's love, to give them the im- 
measurably greater comfort and blessings of home 
and peace in the Promised Land. 

How many of us have to put up with second best 
because of unbelief that turns us into cowards ! We 
turn back and do not, cannot, enter into the glorious 
career God has arranged in his mind and heart for 
us, because we do not dare trust him. The good 
is often the most deadly foe of the best. How our 
lives would blossom into beauty and fruitfulness for 
the joy of our own hearts, and the gladness and en- 
richment of mankind, if, like Joshua and Caleb, we 
dared to face every Anak against whom God would 
lead us ! Why is it that we cannot learn that God's 
will is always the very best thing that can happen to 
us, and in all confidence put our hands up into the 
dark over our heads and let him lead us whereso- 
ever he will? Then we would get the best that is 
possible for us in all God's bright universe. 

" God has his best things for the few 

Who dare to stand the test: 
God has his second choice for those 

Who will not have the best. 
" It is not always open sin 

That risks the promised rest: 
The better sometimes is the foe 

That keeps us from the best. 
"There's scarcely one but vaguely wants 

In some way to be blest : 



98 THE GOSPEL JESUS CANNOT PREACH 

It is not blessing, Lord, I seek, 
I want thy very best. 

"I want in this short life of mine, 
As much as may be pressed 
Of service true for God and man : 
Help me to give thy best. 

" I want amid the victor throng 
To have my name confessed, 
And hear my Saviour say at last, 
' Well done ! you took the best.' 

"Give me, my Lord, thy highest choice. 
Though others take the rest: 
Their good things have no charm for me. 
Since I have found thy best." 

Ill 

Greed, the love of money, the fascination of the 
material things of the world, often make it impos- 
sible for Jesus to proclaim his greater Gospel to us. 
The greatest tragedy recorded in the New Testament 
story of the life and ministry of Jesus is a case of 
that kind. 

Recall to your mind the picture of the rich young 
ruler who came to Jesus in all the glow of youth 
and wealth and culture and flaming earnestness, ask- 
ing of him the way of eternal life. He was a fine 
fellow. He was a splendid specimen of young man- 
hood in many ways, physically, mentally, and morally. 
Jesus, with his keen mind, could see far into men at 
a glance, and he loved this young man. There was 
so much that was lovable about him. The rich bloom 
of youth was upon him, his face had the rosy tints 
of the dawn. He was rich in money, which, rightly 
used, means power to advance all good causes. He 
had an open face, a clear eye, free from vice and 



THE GOSPEL JESUS CANNOT PREACH 99 

dissipation. There was about him that rare charm 
of frankness and sincerity. He was moral and Up- 
right, clean and wholesome in his habits. He was 
no coward — he was manly and courageous. He did 
not wait to come in the dark as did Nicodemus, he 
came openly in the public street during business 
hours,, when all could see. He was a reverent youth, 
and came kneeling to the Christ. He had faith, too, 
that Christ held the key to eternal life — and Jesus 
loved him. Mark was a very practical, matter-of- 
fact writer, and even he, reporting, says: "Jesus, 
looking upon him, loved him." What an opportunity 
to kneel at the very feet of the Son of God, the Lord 
of Life and Glory, to have his full attention, to win 
his admiration, — nay, more, his love ! And then lose ! 
What a tragedy! Jesus could not take him as a 
disciple and friend. He loved him, but had to leave 
him. Why? Because the young man loved money 
more than he loved doing the will of God and shar- 
ing the fate and friendship of Jesus Christ. God 
teach us this great lesson in our own day ! Christ 
had a great gospel for this lovely and lovable young 
man, but the sermon was never preached. There was 
an impenetrable wall of gold between Christ and the 
man's soul. 

IV 

Another thought so close akin -to our theme as 
to be a part of it is that many men and women 
who long to do good to their fellows are going the 
way of life without power to bless humanity, and 
yet Christ needs them and loves them and waits to 



100 THE GOSPEL JESUS CANNOT PREACH 



make them powerful in blessing, but cannot, because 
they are not entirely surrendered to his will. 

Power is a strange and wonderful thing. It is one 
of the great love mysteries of God. How little we 
really know about it ! What could be more mysteri- 
ous and wonderful than the power of gravity? How 
marvelous the power of electricity! Multitudes of 
men harness these great and mysterious powers of 
nature, who, after all, know little about them. But 
there is a far greater power than either of these, and 
that is the power of a human personality clothing 
the divine presence of the Most High God. 

That is a wonderful statement in the Old Testa- 
ment, that when God wanted to save Israel from the 
hosts of Midian, " He clothed himself in Gideon." 
God is never able to give us the greatest power to 
bless humanity of which we are capable, until, emp- 
tying ourselves of all selfishness and pride, we are 
willing and glad to allow God to clothe himself in 
us, and go forth in us to win men to righteousness. 
This old world, that has been rocked so horribly by 
the fierce storms of war, needs, more than anything 
else, that every sincere follower of Christ shall, with 
open heart, place himself humbly at the disposal of 
his divine Lord. Only then will he be able to sing : 

" Only to-day is mine, 

And that I owe to thee; 
Help me to make it thine, 

As pure as it may be ; 
Let it see something done, 
Let it see something won, 
Then at the setting sun 

I'll give it back to thee. 



THE GOSPEL JESUS CANNOT PREACH 



" What if I cannot tell 

The cares the day .may bring? 
I know that I shall dwell 

Beneath thy sheltering wing; 
And there the load is light, 
And there the dark is bright, 
And weakness turns to might — 

And so I trust and sing. 

"What shall I ask to-day? 

Naught but thine own sweet will; 
The windings of the way 

Lead to thy holy hill ; 
And whether here or there, 
Why should I fear or care? 
Thy heavens are everywhere, 

And they are o'er me still. 

"Give me thyself to-day: 

I dare not walk alone ; 
Speak to me by the way, 

And all things are my own — 
The treasures of thy grace, 
The secret hiding-place, 
The vision of thy face, 

The shadow of thy throne ! " 



IX 



THE JAZZ SPIRIT IN MODERN LIFE 

"And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and 
doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which 
built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and 
the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that 
house ; and it fell : and great was the fall of it." — 
Matt. 7i26 y 27, 

THIS is the age of the great god Jazz, and he 
is pervading the most sacred precincts of 
our present-day life with the noisy sound- 
ing brass and tinkling cymbals that are inevitable 
tokens of his presence. He seems to dominate nearly 
everything we do to-day. He has put a certain reck- 
less speed mania into the people. We do not walk 
any more; we ride. And many ride as recklessly as 
Jehu drove. The wonderful invention, the automo- 
bile, is robbed of much of its possible blessing to 
humanity by the speed maniacs who throng the high- 
ways and make motoring for more sane and sensible 
persons a nightmare of terror while it brings neither 
comfort nor information nor real pleasure to them- 
selves. Multitudes who would be healthier, happier, 
and far more wholesome citizens without automo- 
biles, live cramped and narrowed lives physically, 
mentally, and spiritually, in order to possess them. 

We are losing two of the finest arts of life, con- 
versation and letter writing, because of the Jazz 

102 



JAZZ SPIRIT IN MODERN LIFE 



103 



spirit that has taken possession of our modern social 
relations. The telegraph, with its night letter of 
fifty words, has taken the place of the full and com- 
prehensive expression of confidence, affection, hope, 
and good cheer, that brother, or son, or father, or 
husband, used to pen to the members of the family 
left at home, until letter writing is coming fast to 
be one of the lost arts. Some of the finest things in 
all literature are the published letters of cultivated, 
great-souled men and women, who a generation ago 
outpoured their thoughts to absent friends. I won- 
der if such volumes as those will ever again appear? 

The art of conversation seems also to be going in 
the same way. There was a time when many men 
and women were famous for their gifts of conversa- 
tion. They carried in their full minds treasures 
gathered through reading and travel and meditation, 
which made their speech like fountains of refresh- 
ment to their friends; but such conversation seems 
to be passing almost entirely out of modern society. 
The moment's chatter at the telephone largely usurps 
the communications when near by, and the occasional 
wire if they are separated. 

The artificial Jazz spirit is eating into our homes 
with the most serious consequences. The home is 
the one place which, in the very nature of human 
relations, should be our social center; and it is ceas- 
ing to possess the characteristics that in poetry and 
story have made it a foretaste of heaven. People 
give all sorts of reasons why homes are built so 
much smaller at the present day, but is not the real 
reason that people use their homes very much less 



104 JAZZ SPIRIT IN MODERN LIFE 



than formerly? The home is by no means so im- 
portant as it used to be to the average man or 
woman. The old-fashioned hospitality once so com- 
mon and so delightful, both to the host and the guest, 
has almost entirely disappeared. The guest-room is 
scarcely remembered. The great living-room about 
which the children used to revolve as spokes about a 
hub, it being the very center of their lives, has been 
relegated to the attic with worn-out furniture. A 
lodging room and a lunch counter have taken the 
place of what used to be included in that glorious 
old word " home." " Home," now, to multitudes of 
people, is only a series of domestic lockers where they 
keep their spare clothes and go when they want to 
dress and go out to the show or the chop-suey joint 
for the real entertainment and nourishment of their 
Jazz-ridden lives. 

The old " open-house " in the evening for the 
whole family, and for the neighbours who might 
drop in, where delightful conversation ran round the 
circle, or a group gathered about the piano to sing 
patriotic or religious or sane songs of sentiment and 
inspiration ; where is it ? The evenings when, taking 
turn about, members of the group read aloud some 
great history, or soul-stirring piece of fiction like 
Hugo's " Les Miserables," or Thackeray's " Vir- 
ginians," or some new poem, and all the rest of the 
group listened, and now and again, when the read- 
ers changed, the whole circle was drawn into the 
conversation, until the children found lessons im- 
printed for a lifetime in the plastic fabric of their 
opening minds; where are they? 



JAZZ SPIRIT IN MODERN LIFE 105 



Alas! the great god Jazz has banished them and 
impoverished the homes from whence they were 
driven. 

And the family worship that used to follow such 
an evening! when the father, if he were at home, 
or the mother, in his absence, reverently read from 
the Bible, from the Psalms of David, or the words 
of Jesus, or the practical comments on them of Paul, 
and an old hymn rose from the family choir, ere 
they knelt about the old fireside to commend the 
household to God ; where, O where, is it ? The great 
god Jazz has driven it out of multitudes of our 
modern dwellings, though they are still called homes. 

At the home piano you will find a heap of sense- 
less, soulless slush. The old popular songs, many 
of them words written by the great poets and set to 
melodies that stirred the lofty aspirations or roused 
the deep and holy emotions of the heart, are gone. 
Even the later rollicking and picturesque ragtime of 
a few years past has vanished, and Jazz music, so- 
called, has taken its place. Blatant orgies of monkey 
talk and jungle sounds that mean nothing to the 
mind or heart or soul, mere grunts and squeaks and 
gasps that suggest a going backward in evolution, 
beyond the days of recorded history, to some remote 
gorilla ancestry, now cover the pianos of multitudes 
of homes supposed to be civilized. 

The Jazz spirit dominates a great part of the 
newspaper and magazine press of to-day. The news- 
paper not so very long ago used to be a respectable 
public forum for the discussion of things worth 
while; but in how many instances to-day they have 



106 JAZZ SPIRIT IN MODERN LIFE 



degenerated into mere printed movies! News is not 
measured by its value in giving information, but by 
the amount of exciting, sensational pep that can be 
put into it. The newspaper reporter of the day is 
too often a fiction artist, who does not hold himself 
seriously to any responsibility for what he writes. 

Many of the comic supplements are Jazz creations 
of brutality and drivel that are so barren of intelli- 
gence as to be as asinine as the depraved Jazz- 
ridden brains that peruse them to their deeper 
degradation. 

A great part of our modern newspaper is given up 
to be a flaring signboard that has become a burden 
to the merchant and the public, while the editorial 
page has perished of fatty degeneration of the cof- 
fers of the business office. What a waste of nature's 
resources that thousands of acres of perfectly good 
trees, the beautiful handiwork of Almighty God, 
should be slaughtered every day in order that these 
flaring advertising sheets, with but a spoonful of real 
news, may litter the streets of our towns and cities. 

The effect of the Jazz spirit in the modern press 
is to largely destroy the people's confidence in the 
press. All newspaper men of any force and ability 
to-day agree that one of the outstanding character- 
istics of the present time is the people's distrust of 
the news found in the papers. 

The Jazz spirit dominates the public entertainment 
of the people. The lecture platform that used to be 
graced by men like Edward Everett, Wendell Phil- 
lips, Horace Greeley, Henry Ward Beecher, and 
scores of other distinguished personalities who dis- 



JAZZ SPIKIT IN MODEKN LIFE 107 



cussed great themes to which vast throngs came to 
listen and go away to debate over again in home and 
street and school, has vanished. Even the Chautau- 
qua has, in many ways, succumbed to the great god 
Jazz. The entertainment of the people of America 
to-day is largely turned over to the moving picture 
show. There are hundreds of thousands of working 
girls and school children who see moving pictures 
every noon and every evening. There are literally 
millions of boys and girls in trie great cities of the 
United States who are coming up to manhood and 
womanhood, and who, day after to-morrow, will be 
full-fledged citizens of the Republic, and hold the 
dynamite of the ballot in their hands for weal or 
woe to the greatest democracy on earth, who know 
absolutely nothing of love, work, home life, business, 
politics, nature, or indeed of anything else, save what 
the moving picture shows have to tell them ; and even 
in this Jazz age, who is ignorant or conscienceless 
enough to claim that the movie of to-day is a safe or 
decent substitute for home, school, and church? 

Now do not let any one for a moment think that 
this is a tirade against the moving picture movement, 
as such. I have great hope that the moving picture 
movement may be made of great benefit and blessing 
to the world. I hope to live to see it thoroughly and 
generously installed and fully equipped in the public 
schools throughout the land. I can think of nothing 
that could help so much in primary, grammar, or 
high schools in bringing the great truths of science 
and invention clearly to the minds of students. I 
also hope and believe that the day is not far distant 



108 



JAZZ SPIRIT IN MODERN LIFE 



when every church in America will have its moving 
picture plant, and that its assistance will add very 
greatly in holding the interest and imparting lessons 
of the greatest moral and spiritual value, not only 
in the Sunday School, in the work among the chil- 
dren, but in the church itself. The church must 
possess and utilize all such inventions for giving the 
Bible and the Gospel of Jesus career among the 
people. But we must not allow the moving picture 
to displace those agencies which the experience of 
mankind proves can alone develop rich and noble 
minds. 

Children used to read books during the evenings. 
" Reading," says the old proverb, " maketh a full 
man." But among great multitudes to-day neither 
the children nor their parents read books. Can we 
be blind to the danger that this will result in an 
empty-headed generation to whom all the great clas- 
sics of literature will be like Greek or Hebrew ? The 
old-fashioned book store is passing out in smaller 
towns and cities all over the land. I am writing this 
in a prosperous little city in the middle West, sur- 
rounded by farms worth from three hundred to five 
hundred dollars an acre. It is a fine business town, 
with imposing public buildings of which its citizens 
are justly proud. It has paved streets in which, at 
this moment, are parked many hundreds of thou- 
sands of dollars' worth of high-priced motor cars, 
and yet there is not a book-store in the town, nor 
even a place where magazines are kept for sale. But 
there are crowded moving picture houses. Is not 
this a specimen of Jazz gone to seed? 



JAZZ SPIRIT IN MODERN LIFE 109 



The churches are being invaded by this spirit of 
Jazz, to their very great loss. It has turned the 
church in many instances away from its mission. It 
is not the mission of the church of Jesus Christ to 
compete with the concert hall, the lecture platform, 
the social settlement, or the dance hall, in its parish 
houses : its God-given mission is to keep the thought 
of God, and Christ, and his power to forgive sins 
and redeem and save men's souls, before the people. 
Nothing in all this noisy, jangling, brassy generation 
of Jazz is able to compete with the church that sticks 
faithfully to its own business, and refuses to be 
drawn away after strange gods. 

I was in a large Southern city some time ago to 
speak in a certain church. I will not give the name 
of it, or designate it farther than to say that is was 
not a church of the denomination to which I belong. 
The fame of this church as a crowded hive of Chris- 
tian workers, and as a great spiritual power in the 
city, had met me long before I reached the city itself. 
On the Sunday morning when I spoke it was 
crowded to all its standing room, though the day was 
very cold and threatening. The great crowd was not 
especially drawn to hear me. I was informed that 
it was always crowded like that. I spoke on the 
great movement for world-wide prohibition of the 
liquor traffic, and at its close the people gladly gave 
several thousands of dollars to help on that great 
cause; and when I was through, and the collection, 
to which the pastor had urged the people to give 
liberally, was brought in, that brave, faithful Chris- 
tian minister took the platform, and in a few apt 



110 



JAZZ SPIRIT IN MODERN LIFE 



words connected the address of the morning to the 
great business of that church in saving sinners. And 
in a five-minute exhortation, hot out of his flaming 
soul, he appealed to men and women, then and there, 
to give themselves unreservedly to the Christian life, 
and to confess Christ then, before leaving the house. 
When the congregation stood to sing, a great group 
of earnestly repenting, believing souls came forward 
to register their purpose to begin the Christian ser- 
vice as soldiers of Jesus Christ. No one seemed 
astonished at the pastor's conduct. It was the well- 
worn ordinary in that church. It was the business 
he and the church were there to do, and while other 
churches that competed with the opera and the lec- 
ture hall were thinly attended, this church was 
crowded to overflowing, and the spiritual fragrance 
of its saving grace filled the city and the state. 

Do you ask me what is the cure for this Jazz spirit 
that is filling the whole land with unrest and the 
whole world with an artificial, unnatural life, that 
is as a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, com- 
pared with the sane and wholesome life men and 
women ought to lead? My answer is: cease build- 
ing on the sand and return to the solid foundation 
of rock. In Christ's parable, the man who built on 
the rock did not escape the storm, or the flood, but 
he did not lose his home. It remained steadfast, be- 
cause it was founded on a rock. 

Many of these modern inventions that I have used 
with which to illustrate the artificial, noisy, and 
empty life that threatens us with such sad and ter- 
rible loss, are all right in themselves. The automo- 



JAZZ SPIRIT IN MODERN LIFE 



111 



bile, the telegraph, the telephone, and multitudes of 
modern inventions and conveniences should all be 
used for the blessing and not the degradation of the 
people. The pulpit, the press, the moving picture, 
and the school must work together to bring back the 
thoughtless multitudes to a saner, more sincere, more 
genuine and wholesome life. The home must again 
take its place as our social center. We must revive 
its deep fellowship of souls. Child life must know 
again its sweet quiet, and love, and worship, in which 
to grow strong bodies, sane minds, and pure hearts. 
The church must revive its deep Christ-given pur- 
pose to preach the Gospel to every creature, and call 
aloud until the whole world shall hear, above all the 
Jazz of the streets, of the power of Jesus Christ to 
save from sin and satisfy all the deep longings of 
man's soul. And in our personal characters we must 
make sure of the universal safety by holding our- 
selves to a genuinely simple and wholesome Chris- 
tian life. 

It is not easy to escape the spirit of the age in 
which we live, and, no doubt, we have all been tinc- 
tured more or less with this Jazz spirit. Let us de- 
termine that we will, day by day, hold ourselves to 
such genuineness of living that if all the people in 
our town live the same kind of lives as we do, this 
perilous artificial spirit of Jazz will disappear, and 
our town will become a city of God. 

I have not spoken in this way of the dangerous 
spirit of our own time because I am discouraged as 
to God's final triumph. I am not discouraged. God 
is not taken by surprise. He goes forth steadily. 



112 



JAZZ SPIRIT IN MODERN LIFE 



The ocean tide coming into the bay often eddies and 
revolves here and there in whirlpools, and wave after 
wave seem beaten into failure on ledge and reef, but 
after awhile the tide prevails, and fills the whole 
harbour with its blessing. So shall it be in God's 
great purpose of good to humanity. You may call 
this Jazz manifestation of our own day an eddy, or 
a whirlpool, or a white reef, as you will, but God's 
great purpose will go on to the triumph of Christ's 
glorious mission to the lost, but ransomed and re- 
deemed world. 

" On the far reef the breakers 

Recoil in shattered foam, 
While still the sea behind them 

Urges the forces home. 
Its song of triumph surges 

O'er all the thunderous din-; 
The wave may break in failure, 

But the tide is sure to win. 

"The reef is strong and cruel; 

Upon its jagged wall 
One wave, a score, a hundred, 

Broken and beaten fall, 
Yet in defeat they conquer ; 

The sea comes flooding in; 
Wave upon wave is routed, 

But the tide is sure to win. 

" O mighty sea, thy message 

In clamoring spray is cast 
Within God's plan of progress; 

It matters not at last 
How wide the shores of evil; 

How strong the reefs of sin; 
The wave may be defeated, 

But the tide is sure to win." 



X 



THE FOLLY OF MEDDLING WITH GOD 

" Forbear thee from meddling with God." — 2 Chronicles 
35:21. 

JOSIAH was king of Judah for thirty-one years, 
although he died before he was forty. He 
came to the throne when a child of only eight 
years. But he was a good boy, and began early to 
seek the will of God, and he was much above the 
average of his line as a king. He was famous for his 
public profession of piety. He made large display 
of tearing down false gods, and there never was in 
the history of Judah such displays of religion in 
keeping the annual Passover as there was under 
Josiah. But both his intellect and his piety seem 
to have lacked good steady balance. After he had 
been king for thirty years, Neco, the king of Egypt, 
came up to fight Carchemish by the Euphrates, and 
Josiah took a hand in the fight. He had no call to 
do so. It was really none of his business. But 
Josiah liked Carchemish and he hated Neco, and 
so he mobilized his armies and got ready to inter- 
fere with Neco. When Neco heard of this action 
of the part of Josiah, he sent ambassadors to reason 
with him and said to him : " What have I to do with 
thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee 
this day, but against the house wherewith I have 

113 



114 FOLLY OF MEDDLING WITH GOD 



war: and God hath commanded me to make haste: 
forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with 
me, that he destroy thee not." 

Neco was in the right. God was evidently using 
the king of Egypt against Carchemish as he on an- 
other occasion used the king of Assyria as his hired 
razor, and there was no call whatever for Josiah to 
interfere. The fact that he made no open declara- 
tion in answer to Neco shows that he realized that 
Neco's statement was true, and that he was really 
fighting against God and meddling with the divine 
purpose in persisting in his opposition to Neco. 

But Josiah had been king a good while and had 
acquired the kingly habit of demanding his own way. 
Josiah had been peculiarly blessed of God. God had 
again and again shown peculiar mercy toward him, 
and on more than one occasion had turned from him 
the sword of judgment that threatened him. Evi- 
dently, instead of its making Josiah the more sensi- 
tive to God's will and increasing his reverence for 
God's purpose, it had had the effect of making him 
presumptuous, and although he was convinced that 
Neco was, in this case, God's messenger, he persisted 
in fighting him. He even went to the extreme limit 
of disguising himself in order that he might go out 
personally into the battle and fight Neco. So in- 
fatuated was he that he seems to have believed that 
he would not only be able to deceive Neco, but to 
cheat God at the same time. His folly was short 
lived. The record says : " Nevertheless, Josiah 
would not turn his face from him, but disguised 
himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened 



FOLLY OF MEDDLING WITH GOD 115 



not unto the words of Neco from the mouth of God, 
and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. And 
the archers shot at king Josiah ; and the king said to 
his servants: Have me away; for I am sore 
wounded. So his servants took him out of the 
chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he 
had, and brought him to Jerusalem, and he died." 

Josiah is a shining example of the tragic truth 
that though a man may have been very religious, and 
even faithfully served God in a most conspicuous 
way, he cannot with impunity meddle with the divine 
purpose of the Almighty. 

II 

Josiah is by no means the only man of high place 
in the Bible story who found his doom in meddling 
with God. The list is long and has on it many dis- 
tinguished names, but perhaps none are more inter- 
esting or more significant in the lessons taught by 
the dramatic climax than that of the overthrow of 
Belshazzar related in the book of Daniel. 

Belshazzar had not been without warning of the 
folly of meddling with God in the history of his own 
family. His ancestor, the great Nebuchadnezzar, 
had meddled with God and had been driven into the 
wild plains with the cattle herds to eat grass with 
the oxen. 

Belshazzar came into a part of the power of the 
great kingdom of Babylon when only a boy of fif- 
teen, and unlimited opportunity for luxury, and flat- 
tery, and power had utterly turned his head and 
made him morally as well as mentally unbalanced. 



116 FOLLY OF MEDDLING WITH GOD 



We are so intoxicated with our own greatness 
to-day in America that it is hard for us to appre- 
ciate the grandeur of Babylon in the days of Bel- 
shazzar. Herodotus, the father of history, has given 
us facts that will open any of our eyes. According 
to this most reliable of ancient historians, the front 
of the great palace of Belshazzar was six times as 
great as the front of St. Peter's Church in Rome, 
and four times as great as the length of the Capitol 
in Washington. The whole structure was sur- 
rounded by three walls so high that it would take 
thirteen tall men standing erect one above the other 
to reach the top. Some idea of the extent of the 
splendid gardens surrounding the palace may be had 
when we are reminded that the outer wall inclosed 
more ground than Central Park in New York City. 
Babylon itself was fifteen miles square, surrounded 
by walls as high as our modern skyscrapers and wide 
enough to have conducted in safety a modern auto- 
mobile race with many contestants. 

There was, according to Herodotus, in the walls 
of Babylon alone more than five thousand millions 
of solid feet of masonry. Babylonian bricks, a foot 
square, inscribed with the name of Nebuchadnezzar 
are still dug from the ground about the ruins of that 
vast city in more than a hundred excavations. There 
are millions of such bricks to-day lying just where 
they were laid by the hands of the bricklayers twenty- 
four hundred years ago. 

Belshazzar, in the midst of all this glory, forgot 
the judgment that fell on his fathers for their sins 
and went the same wicked way to his doom. At the 



FOLLY OF MEDDLING WITH GOD 117 



time immediately preceding the great feast which 
Belshazzar made for his thousand lords, which is so 
graphically recorded in the Bible, the city had been 
besieged by a great army of Medes from the North, 
and that army had been suddenly withdrawn so far 
as could be seen from the watch-towers on the walls. 

Foolishly taking it for granted that the leaders of 
these armies had become discouraged and had given 
up and gone home, this great feast had been prepared 
for the purpose of celebrating the invulnerability of 
the great city. The whole city, as well as the palace, 
was given over to wild, drunken rejoicing. The poet 
describes the scene as King Belshazzar entered the 
hall: 

" And a thousand dark nobles all bend at his board ; 
Fruits glisten, flowers blossom, meats steam, and a flood 
Of the wine that man loveth runs redder than blood; 
Wild dancers are there, and a riot of mirth, 
And the beauty that maddens the passions of earth; 
And the crowd all shout, while the vast roofs ring, 
All praise to Belshazzar, Belshazzar the king ! " 

Daniel March, a past master in such descriptions, 
paints this brilliant scene in vivid colors : 

"'The music and the banquet and the wine; the garlands, 
the rose odors, and the flowers ; the sparkling eyes, the 
flashing ornaments, the jeweled arms, the raven hair, the 
braids, the bracelets, the thin robes floating like clouds; the 
fair forms, the delusion and the false enchantment of the 
dizzy scene,' take away all reason and all reverence from 
the flushed and crowded revelers. There is now nothing 
too sacred for them to profane, and Belshazzar himself takes 
the lead in the riot and the blasphemy. Even the mighty 
and terrible Nebuchadnezzar, who desolated the sanctuary 
of Jehovah at Jerusalem, would not use his sacred trophies 



118 FOLLY OF MEDDLING WITH GOD 



in the worship of his false gods. But this weak and wicked 
successor of the great conqueror, excited with wine and 
carried away with the delusion that no foe can ever cap- 
ture his great city, is anxious to make some grand display 
of defiant and blasphemous desecration." 
" ' Bring forth,' cries the monarch, * the vessels of gold 
Which my father tore down from the temples of old; 
Bring forth, and we'll drink while the trumpets are blown, 
To the gods of bright silver, of gold, and of stone. 
Bring forth.' And before him the vessels all shine, 
And he bows unto Baal, and he drinks the dark wine, 
While the trumpets bray and the cymbals ring, 
' Praise, praise to Belshazzar, Belshazzar the king.' 
Now what cometh? Look! look! without menace or call, 
Who writes with the lightning's bright hand on the wall? 
What pierceth the king like the point of a dart? 
What drives the bold blood from his cheek to his heart? 
Let the captive of Judah the letters expound. 
They are read, and Belshazzar is dead on the ground. 
Hark' the Persian has come on the conqueror's wing, 
And the Mede's on the throne of Belshazzar the king." 

And so Belshazzar is another shining example of 
the folly of meddling with God. That great feast of 
boasting and blasphemy was the last ceremonial of 
the Chaldean kings. The Bible story says simply: 
" That night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chal- 
deans, slain. And Darius, the Median, took the 
kingdom." 

Ill 

It is just as great and presumptuous a folly to 
meddle with God to-day as in the days of Josiah or 
Belshazzar. 

The versatile and cultured editor of Current 
Opinion published recently in that helpful magazine 
a very remarkable study in which he brings out the 
folly of trying to cheat God or in any way stay or 



FOLLY OF MEDDLING WITH GOD 119 



thwart his divine purpose. With great power he rea- 
sons from the accuracy of nature and sees in that 
proved accuracy that the same exact justice will be 
realized in spiritual realms. Nature, he assures us, 
is never in a hurry, never late, and never forgets or 
fumbles. The atoms, he declares, are also on time 
and march with the precision of soldiers. Nothing 
is hard, nothing is easy, for Nature. She juggles 
Arcturus and guides a raindrop down the window- 
pane with equal nonchalance. Nature never guesses, 
slips, or misses. She never makes a move that can- 
not be expressed in algebraic formula. There is no 
waste, no scraps, no refuse. The chemical reactions 
of the garbage heap are just as true as those of the 
apothecary's table. With irresistible logic he reasons 
that anger, malice, kindness, and love move with the 
same unerring exactness that prevails in the com- 
pounds of sulphur, hydrogen, and oxygen. Nature 
would not be careful in low matter and slipshod in 
her high products of the spirit. It is no mere figure 
of speech, then, to say : " Be sure your sin will find 
you out." " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
also reap." But it is just as true on the other side — 
also your goodness will find you out. We live in a 
world of accurate moral as well as chemical reaction. 
The ten commandments do not foozle any more than 
does the multiplication table. 

With merciless logic, our editor carries out his 
conclusion. " Behind every unclean thought," he de- 
clares, "roars the thunder of the Pleiades. Every 
theft and cheating calls a power of vengeance from 
the air. Every act of disloyalty, or jealous mean- 



120 FOLLY OF MEDDLING WITH GOD 



ness, or malice, is on its road to meet somewhere a 
sword or a sorrow." And he quotes the poet's vision 
of " The Hounds of God " who mercilessly trail the 
sinner to his punishment. 

"The hounds of God across the years 
Are running swift and true; 
Far and away they seem to play, 
But they're tracking me and you. 

"The king is seated on his throne, 
His courtiers all around him, 
They see him start and grasp his heart — 
The hounds of God have found him. 

"At low midnight the wastrel wakes, 
Afraid upon his bed, 
For the hollow sounds of the baying hounds 
Are ringing in his head. 

" The wicked woman wipes her lips 

And says, ' 'Tis naught, 'tis naught ! ' 
Yet the velvet feet of the hounds so fleet 
Whisper behind her thought. 

"They have torn great empires limb from limb, 
They have conquered the conquerors, 
And their teeth have hurt for sins of dirt 
In plagues that are worse than wars. 

" They have cruelly taken the old man down, 
They have bitten the babe at the breast; 
For there's never a sin of kith or kin 
Can escape their fateful quest. 

"Before us goes God's angel tall, 
Flying upon the wind, 
And sweet as the dawn he beckons us on — 
But the hounds of God are behind ! " 

But, thank God, we never need close a Christian 
sermon on that key, for he himself has spoken to us 
of forgiveness and mercy through Christ, who dared 
to be made sin for us, and who opened a way for our 
forgiveness and escape. 



FOLLY OF MEDDLING WITH GOD 121 



In the old shepherd days in the East the Syrian 
shepherd led his flock on its way to the pasture 
ground for the day and again on the way home at 
night. The sheep knew his voice and followed him. But 
if any grew lazy or careless or willful and began to 
wander or linger behind, the shepherd's dog watched 
in the rear with sharp bark and sharper fangs to see 
that they did not forget. It is better to listen and 
give heed to the kind voice of the Good Shepherd 
than to feel the teeth of the hounds of God. Before 
us God's angels of love are always calling us to the 
right path, to do the will of God, and walk in peace ; 
but if we turn to the wrong way we must expect the 
hounds of God. It is better to be sensitive to the 
call of God's angels than to feel the teeth of 
his hounds. If we heed the angels, we make friends 
with all the great accurate laws of God; we enter 
into a great and unshakable peace. We know that 
our destiny is not the plaything of chance, but is as 
sure as the God who holds the universe in his hand. 
With such assurance we are able to go on our happy 
way singing: 

" He has filled my mouth with a song of praise 
For blessings that hallow the passing days, 
For his love bestowed in boundless ways, 
Has my God, my Friend. 

" He has filled my heart with his love so deep, 
More love have I for his poor, lost sheep 
That he seeks afar on the mountain steep, 
My Lord, my Friend. 

" He has filled my life with a glad, sweet song, 
That sings of itself when the days are long; 
And keeps me content as I journey on. 
With my Lord and Friend." 



XI 



THE VOICE OF JESUS 

" He calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. 
And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before 
them, and the sheep follow him ; for they know his voice." — 
John 10:3, 4. 

AMONG all the blessings which our Heavenly 
Father has bestowed upon us, none per- 
haps yield us greater joy than the power v 
to hear and enjoy sounds and make response with 
our own voices. To nearly all the things which God 
has created he has given some voice with which to 
express pleasure or pain or appreciation of the expe- 
riences of life. Very few, if any, of God's creatures 
are condemned to perpetual silence. The long- 
accepted belief that the fishes were a peculiarly silent 
and voiceless section of the animated world has been 
disproved by scientific investigation. We are now 
told that not less than three hundred species of fish 
are known to produce sounds of various kinds and 
of different degrees of intensity. Among the most 
notable examples of sound-producing fish is the sun- 
fish taken around the coasts of Great Britain, in the 
making of which nature seems to have run out of 
material and left out the tail. When taken out of 
the water it emits a distinctly audible groan. The 
croaker, well known along the Atlantic Coast, 
derives its name from the sound it makes when 

122 



THE VOICE OF JESUS 123 



taken into a boat. The red gurnard has been nick- 
named the sea-cock, from its habit of crowing 1 like 
a rooster; while the grunt of the pig fish and the 
hog fish are responsible for their names. The big 
jew fish of the Gulf of Mexico breaks the solemn 
silences of the waters with sonorous booms, while 
the armado of South American waters, when caught 
with a hook and line, gives forth a grating, angry- 
sound which is distinctly heard, even before the fish 
is brought to the surface of the water. The sea frog 
of the Malabar waters owes its name to the sound 
it emits. The Tagus has a fish that emits vibra- 
tions resembling the sound of a deep-toned bell or 
gong. Many scientists now believe that the fabled 
song of the siren had its origin in the sounds emitted 
by the maigre, which sounds vary in volume and 
tone, from a distinct, clear sound, lasting many sec- 
onds, to an indefinite hum which, either from lack 
of intensity or excessive vibrations, is lost in the 
silence of the watery waste. These sounds are said 
to be audible from a depth of twenty fathoms when 
the fish are traveling in schools. 

It is a far cry from these sounds, emitted by the 
lowest order of animated life, up through the call 
of the woods, the pasture and the barnyard ; through 
the gentle bark of the watch dog and the song of 
birds, the roar of the lion, the neigh of the horse, to 
the human voice ; and on to its climax in the charm- 
ing voice of the Good Shepherd. But they are all ex- 
pressions and witnesses of the infinite goodness and 
mercy of the Creator and Preserver of the Universe. 

Much has been written concerning the human 



124 THE VOICE OF JESUS 



voice, and voice inflections. Gladstone's voice has 
been compared to a great cathedral bell sounding 
over the river. Henry Clay's voice, the historian 
tells us, had an indescribable charm; it could ring 
out in tones like a blast of a trumpet, or plead in 
low plaintive notes of haunting music that thrilled 
the listener like the chanting of the far-famed 
" Miserere " at Rome. Some one records that he 
could repeat the words, " The days that are no 
more/' with such a melancholy beauty of expression 
that no one could hear him without shedding tears. 

So wide is the compass of the human voice that 
it can be stirred by appropriate emotions to rival the 
thunder for majesty, the snarl of a tiger for rage, 
the hiss of a snake for hate, the cooing of a dove 
for melancholy, or the song of the angels for sweet- 
ness and love. 

We are to study some of the characteristics of the 
most wonderful of all human voices, the voice of 
Jesus. 

I 

It was a voice of power and authority. Some peo- 
ple who came to hear him with critical ears went 
away amazed, saying to each other, " He speaks as 
one having authority." Some policemen in Jerusa- 
lem were sent by the Chief Priests to arrest Jesus 
one day when he was speaking in the open air, and 
they went and paused at the edge of the crowd to 
listen for a moment, and after hearing Jesus for a 
while they went away without even speaking to him 
about their mission. When they came back, the 
men who sent them said : " Where is your pris- 



THE VOICE OF JESUS 



125 



oner ? " And with awed and solemn faces those 
veteran policemen replied : " Never man spake like 
this man." It was the authority and power in that 
voice which awed them into deep fear and sent them 
away without him. 

Alone, with his platted whip in his hand, Jesus 
drove a great crowd of money-changing speculators 
and greedy crooks out of the Temple. It was not 
the little platted whip in his hand that did it ; it was 
the keener lash of his commanding voice that stung 
them as he thundered, " It is written : My house y 
shall be called the house of prayer ; but ye have made 
it a den of thieves." 

Jesus stood before the man possessed by an evil 
spirit and said to the unclean devil within him: 
" Come out of him ! " and he was obeyed. Thank 
God, Jesus has that blessed power until this day, and 
unclean spirits who have been despoiling the souls 
of men and women are still being dispossessed at the 
command of the all-powerful voice of Jesus. Here 
is a true story of our own time, equal to any story 
recorded in the Acts of the Apostles : 

Chief Manitowog, a full-blooded Siwash Indian 
from Washington State, came to New York in 1914 
to act in the Hippodrome, having lived all the sixty- 
five years of his life without any knowledge of 
Christianity, doing only as he pleased. Soon he was 
arrested, tried, and sentenced to eighteen months in 
Sing Sing for carrying a concealed weapon. As he 
was leaving the Tombs, the prison chaplain gave him 
a Bible, which was faithfully read, and before long 
the Indian became a Christian. His Bible was his 



126 



THE VOICE OF JESUS 



constant companion for eighteen months spent in 
Sing Sing. It was marked according to a system of 
his own, and so continuously has it been used that 
recently he brought it to the American Bible Society 
to be rebound. A few days after he received his 
Bible, as good as new, he sent the following letter 
to the Bible Society: 

"My dear Sir. — I am mailing to yoH these five dollars 
out of my own earnings to want nothing but for the good 
works ye people doing for our Great Jehovah and the 
Saviour Jesus Christ by sending the precious Book Bible 
from pole to pole among the very savages of this world. 
It is really best works in the world, and the Gospel of Jesus 
must be reached to the very utmost parts of the world 
among all the nations and tribes. And I thank to my God, 
that his Gospel reached my heart to the very spot where it 
should be touched, that to-day I am a new-born man in 
every way. Your great Bible which was sent to me while 
I was behind prison bars for eighteen months, entirely 
changed my life. It caused me to lead a better and happier 
life than I did for sixty-five years, and I thank and praise 
the Lord for this wonderful change in my life. I wish the 
American Bible Society prosperity and great success, and 
may our God bless all ye people who are interested in the 
Lord and his works. 

Thank you very much for the good work ye have done 
to my eternal and everlasting friend that Holy Bible, and 
I feel so proud every time I have it in my hand. 

I remain yours a sincere friend in Jesus, 

Chief Manitowog." 

Thank God ! The voice of Jesus even through the 

printed page was powerful enough to lift Chief 

Manitowog out of his sins into a noble manhood. 

II 

The voice of Jesus is a convincing voice. When 
men heard him they knew it was genuine. They did 
not doubt the inherent truth of Christ. 



THE VOICE OF JESUS 



127 



Just once, during his life, Paul, who was, at the 
time, the wicked persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, was 
permitted to hear the marvelous voice of Jesus. He 
tells King Agrippa about it, and you will find it in 
one of the most powerful paragraphs in human liter- 
ature, in the twenty-sixth chapter of Luke's history 
of the Acts of the Apostles. This is Paul's wonder- 
fully graphic story : " At midday, O king, I saw .in 
the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of 
the sun, shining round about me and them that jour- 
neyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the 
earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying 
in the Hebrew tongue : Saul, Saul, why persecutest 
thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the 
pricks. And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he 
said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest But rise, 
and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto 
thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a 
witness both of these things which thou hast seen, 
and of those things in which I will appear unto thee ; 
delivering thee from the people, and from the Gen- 
tiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, 
and to turn them from darkness to light, and from 
the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive 
forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them 
which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Where- 
upon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto 
the heavenly vision." 

That one hearing of the voice of Jesus convinced 
Paul so perfectly that he gave his whole life up to 
the service of Christ. Neither stoning, nor whippings, 
nor imprisonment could shake his faith; and at the 



128 



THE VOICE OP JESUS 



last, in Nero's dungeon waiting to be beheaded, he 
could write to Timothy: "I have fought a good 
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the 
faith : henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of 
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, 
shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but 
unto all them also that love his appearing." 

The convincing voice of Jesus had done its work 
well with Paul. 

Ill 

The voice of Jesus is a sympathetic, persuasive, 
and comforting voice. 

When Lazarus died, his sorrowing sisters, Mary 
and Martha, sent for Jesus, and when he came and 
they had poured out their grief to their one great 
friend, can you not feel the divine sympathy in his 
tones as he says to them, " Where have ye laid 
him?" 

And at that curiosity-seeking, loveless dinner in 
the house of Simon the Leper, when Mary Magda- 
lene came, and to their indignation and amazement, 
the repenting, loving woman broke the box of ala- 
baster and anointed with its rich perfume the head 
of Jesus, do you not catch the tones of understanding 
and sympathy as Jesus tenderly defends her action, 
saying : " Let her alone. * * * She hath 
anointed my body beforehand for the burying." 

And on that other occasion, when they brought to 
the Master the woman taken in adultery and he, in 
a voice marvelously heart-searching and conscience- 
piercing to the men who brought her, said: "He 



THE VOICE OF JESUS 129 



that is without sin among you, let him first cast a 
stone at her." And then the confused hypocrites 
went away one after another in their shame, and 
Jesus looked up and said : " Woman, where are those 
thine accusers ? hath no man condemned thee ? She 
said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, 
Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more." 
One must be heavy of hearing indeed who does not 
catch something of the tones of divine sympathy and 
understanding in the compassionate, encouraging, 
comforting voice of Jesus as he spoke those words. 

God grant to us something of that kindness of 
tone when we would give sympathy and encourage- 
ment. 

" Don't say to the fellow who's down and out : 
' Forget your troubles ! Cheer up, old scout ! ' 
But give him a wholesome, friendly hand, 
And say, ' I'm sorry — I understand.' 

"The saddest thing in life, maybe, 
Will happen — who knows — to you or me, 
And it won't be in us to calmly smile 
Or put it aside for a little while. 

" So cheer him over the roughest spot 
With sympathy, for he needs a lot. 
For many a heart that's tired and broken 
Long\s for a word that is never spoken. 

" It is fine to know, at the close of day, 
That you helped some one in a human way. 
Go give him a wholesome, friendly hand, 
And say, ' I'm sorry — I understand.' " 

IV 

It is one of the most glorious facts connected with 
our miracle-working Christianity that if we give 
our hearts completely to be possessed by and directed 



130' THE VOICE OF JESUS 



by our Saviour, he is able to take the harshest, cold- 
est-voiced man or woman among us, and infuse into 
that voice something of the divine tenderness and 
sympathy of his own heavenly voice of love and give 
to us the same magic power to draw men and 
women away from sin. 

One of the sweetest stories of the recent con- 
quest of Jesus Christ among human hearts comes 
from Arizona. Mary Ritchie Ward tells in the Penn 
Weekly the beautiful story of a young Indian boy 
who was attending the Catholic Mission School at 
the old San Xavier Mission near Tucson, Arizona, 
built by Spanish Catholic missionaries hundreds of 
years ago. But Catholicism has rarely, if ever, in 
this section succeeded in reaching the hearts of the 
Indians. It seems only to have succeeded in graft- 
ing its superstitions on the root of superstition native 
to their pagan minds. One day from their own quar- 
ters came the chanting black-robed priests. 

At a signal-gong the doors of the mission school 
were thrown open, lessons were stopped, and the 
children of the reservation came on their knees to 
join the worshipers. Nuns hovered near, trying to 
keep order. But here, boylike, a small Indian jostled 
his fat companion and sent him sprawling on the 
sand. Just behind, two little girls giggled and 
snickered. Bringing up the rear of the school pro- 
cession came the big boys of the reservation. 

" Remember your sins," said the priest. 

Jose Hidalgo, a strapping fellow of seventeen, did 
not want to remember his sins. He wished heartily 
that he might forget them instead. Jose had cheated 



THE yOICE OF JESUS 



131 



at gambling. He had never been taught to regard 
gambling as a sin, but he knew in his heart that he 
had no right to the money that he had won unfairly 
from Carlos. The money had belonged to Carlos' 
mother, too, and she was old and sick. Jose felt little 
and mean. Remember his sins ? Ah, if only he could 
forget ! 

A pebble ground painfully into Jose's knee-cap. 
He tossed it contemptuously aside. The hot sun beat 
mercilessly upon his bare head. He was more or less 
accustomed to that. But this walking on his knees 
was another matter. The strained, uncomfortable 
position irritated him. Besides, he saw no good in 
it. It seemed silly for a big fellow like him to be 
crawling like a baby. 

Just then a needle-sharp cactus thorn pierced his 
other knee with an agonizing stab. He had to fall 
out of line to remove it. As he stopped he noticed 
for the first time an American lady and several young 
men, visitors, who were watching the scene. 

" Poor people ! " said the lady pityingly ; " poor, 
misguided, hungry-hearted people! Seeking the 
truth so earnestly in the best way they know, and 
yet there isn't a ray of light in their faces." 

" How different they look from those Indians we 
saw at the Protestant mission we visited," said one 
young man. " How their faces did shine ! They 
say that every Indian who has graduated from the 
Tucson school has gone out a real Christian." 

" Look at that fellow," said his companion. 
" Isn't he a perfect specimen ! " 

" Physically, yes," was the reply. " Too bad he 



132 THE VOICE OF JESUS 



can't have better opportunities. He looks as if he 
might have the making of a man in him if he had a 
chance." 

Jose knew a little English. He had picked up 
enough to understand that they were speaking about 
him. He had heard of that other school where they 
taught so many wonderful things. Above all, he 
wanted to be a man. This counting of beads, and 
walking on the knees, and seeking absolution by 
penance only to feel your sins as heavily as before, 
had seemed useless and childish for a long time. 

The store of rebellion that had been gathering in 
his heart for months past broke suddenly. He'd 
have no more of this. He'd try that other school. 
He'd be a man. 

Brazenly he rose to his feet, heedless of the hor- 
rified rebuke of the supervising nun. Throwing 
back his head in defiance of authority he stalked 
home across the desert. 

I have not time to tell you the interesting story — 
how he paid his gambling debt by killing his pet 
chickens, and overcame all obstacles, and found his 
way to the Protestant Mission School. 

There he had everything to learn. He had to over- 
come all his old Indian ways. He had to learn cour- 
tesy to women and girls, and cleanliness of person 
and life. But he conquered. He was the valedic- 
torian of his class. But through all these school 
years he had never made any profession of his faith 
in Christ. All the rest of his class were avowed 
Christians, and the missionaries and teachers, as well 
as his classmates, were often in prayer for Jose. On 



THE VOICE OF JESUS 133 



the last day of school, before entering on the regular 
Commencement program, the President of the school 
led a meeting of prayer and consecration. All hearts 
were hoping and praying that Jose might at last 
hear the voice of Jesus, but he sat stolidly and made 
no sign. Finally, when all heads were bowed for 
silent prayer, the voice of a young girl in the class, 
a girl whom Jose had secretly loved from the first 
day of his coming to the school, was tremblingly 
raised in song: 

" While Jesus whispers to you, 
Come, sinner, come." 

It was Therese, the favourite of the class. 

" While we are praying for you, 
Come, sinner, come ! 
Now is the time to own him — " 

Her voice trembled, but she went on to the end of 
the song. The last notes died away. Then a sigh- 
ing sob broke the tension. 

Jose Hidalgo rose slowly to his feet. His face was 
pale with emotion. His broad shoulders were shak- 
ing. After a moment he spoke. 

" I, Jose Hidalgo, have been a coward. Many 
things I have wanted to do and to say since I have 
come to this school, but I was afraid. Now I am 
afraid no longer. One thing will I say before I go, 
and I will say it to the whole world, too. Best of all 
in heaven and on earth I love the Lord Jesus." 

And then, " Lord, we thank thee," prayed the pres- 
ident, " we thank thee that at last Jose Hidalgo has 
become a man." 

It was a happy class that left the chapel. 



134 THE VOICE OF JESUS 



Now tfie visitors of the evening were arriving, 
proud Indian parents, roly-poly brown baby brothers 
and sisters, American friends, and a few curious 
Mexicans. 

The exercises were held on the well-lighted porch 
of the school. The visitors sat on chairs and benches 
in the yard. Jose's valedictory was splendid. To- 
night he was able to put into it the heart that the 
teachers had feared it would lack. At the close of 
his address he told in a few simple words how he 
had found the Lord, and of how, if the missionaries 
thought him fit for such service, he intended to spend 
his whole life in giving the Gospel to his people. 

At the close came the tableaux. These were not 
on the porch, but out in the yard, to give the natural 
setting. And such scenes as were portrayed: — the 
first Indians welcoming Columbus, the Indians bring- 
ing corn, pumpkins, and turkeys to the Pilgrim colo* 
nists for the first Thanksgiving celebration, Poca- 
hontas saving the life of Captain John Smith ; almost 
every good Indian prominent in American history 
had his place. 

The closing scene planned was the representation 
of a famous painting, " The Indian Lovers." At the 
last moment in shifting some heavy scenes, Juan, the 
young man who had one of the leading parts in this 
tableau, sprained his ankle too badly to take his part. 
Jose, to the astonishment of all, volunteered to take 
the place. The young Indian girl of the tableau was 
Therese, the sweet singer whose tender voice had 
brought the Christ to Jose's heart — the girl whom he 
loved. 



THE VOICE OF JESUS 135 



" You must appear to speak a few words just be- 
fore the curtain falls," the teacher had said. 

One thought alone filled Therese's heart. Of that 
she spoke. " I am so glad," she whispered, " so 
glad you love Him too." 

Standing half turned from the audience, Jose had 
become oblivious to his surroundings. He knew 
only that he was with Therese. He remembered the 
parting that must come in a few hours, when he 
would return to the Papagoes, and she would go 
with her father to her Pima people. 

" Best of all in heaven and on earth," he said, " I 
love the Lord Jesus. And after that," he said, " best 
of all on earth I love Therese." 

" I never knew it," murmured Therese. 

" And you, Therese ? " urged Jose. 

Therese smiled, and then with trembling lips she 
said, " Best of all in heaven and on earth I, too, love 
the Lord Jesus. And after that I love you, Jose 
Hidalgo." 

Some who were looking very closely thought they 
saw Jose kiss Therese just as the curtain fell. 

" That was simply perfect," said an enthusiastic 
American visitor : " I never saw such perfect act- 
ing." 

" It was perfect," agreed a teacher ; " but it wasn't 
acting." 

Among the Papago people Jose and Therese have 
been living for some years now, happy in giving their 
lives in the service of Him who loved us all and gave 
Himself for us, regardless of whether our skins be 
white or brown in colour. 



136 THE VOICE OF JESUS 



God grant to each of us the charm of the voice of 
the Master that we may win the world to him! If 
we have ears to hear, his voice will speak to us out 
of all the experiences of life, quickening within our 
souls the spiritual fervour that will make of each of 
us a divine transformer to convey the heavenly elec- 
tricity to other souls. Luciel Doris Cress sings with 
beautiful imagery how to spiritually alert ears all 
seasons and all nature may bring to us his inspiring 
voice : 

" Out of the still dawn, when first the shadows rise, 

And the hills are tinged with light of coming day, 
Along the low horizon, where rosy^tinted skies 
Show forth His beauty in a wondrous way, 
A message comes as clear and strong 

As sounded word could be, 
And out of the stillness of the dawn 
He speaks to me. 

" Out of the bright noon, when brilliant sunshine gleams 

And makes the world a mellow land of gold, 
When man is at his labour and the world with business 
teems 

And the world is filled with vigor, strong and bold, 
Out of the bright sunshine, 

In a voice clear as can be, 
Out of the glorious midday 

He speaks to me. 

" Out of the sweet sunset, when glorious shades of gold 

And pink and purple touch the evening sky, 
When a picture lies before me, so wondrous to behold, 
That I could look and be content to die, 
Out of that glorious scene 
In tones soft as can be, 
Out of the beauteous sunset 
He speaks to me. 

" Out of the calm night, when wide-awake I lie 
To think and dream of all His wonders mean, 
When the light of myriad worlds glows bright against the 
sky 



THE VOICE OF JESUS 137 



And His magic power is felt and yet not seen, 
His message comes as clear 

As message e'er can be, 
And out of the wonder of the night 

He speaks to me. 

" Out of the whole world, wherever Nature rules 

And casts her beauteous splendour all about, 
Where life and love are clustered in such radiance of jewels 
That when once seen can never be cast out, 
Out of all great Nature, 

Things past or yet to be, 
Out of the garden of His love 
He speaks to me." 



XII 



UNEXPLORED SPIRITUAL HARMONIES 

" Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and which 
entered not into the heart of man, whatsoever things God 
prepared for them that love him. But unto us God revealed 
them through the Spirit." — I Cor. 2:9, 10. 

1HAVE been greatly impressed with a remark- 
able article in the Atlantic Monthly entitled 
" Unexplored Harmonies," by Alida Chanler, 
in which she brings out the fact that though nature 
shapes our lives by many subtle forces: by climate 
and sound, by light and shadow and silence, yet our 
senses are dulled by repetition, and much beauty that 
we might see and hear often eludes us. But she 
brings out the far more interesting fact that it is not 
only by invisible colours and inaudible sounds that 
nature is constantly affecting our lives. She assures 
us that when we are soothed in the peaceful stillness 
of the woods, it is not only by the absence of dis- 
cord, but also by silent harmonies actively at work; 
that often what seems to be empty silence is really 
deep-lying music, as harmonious as the sweep of 
summer fields on a mountainside; that our eyes and 
our ears are as windows built at the end of tunnels, 
through which we reach to the gardens of sound and 
colour beyond. But she proves to us that for all the 
light and visible colour it is possible for us to enjoy, 
for all the sweet sounds we can hear, there is vastly 

138 



SPIRITUAL HARMONIES 



139 



more that until very recently no human eye or ear 
has been able to explore. 

She relates that she has seen a Mexican bird, allied 
to the Northern hermit thrush, whose throat fairly 
quivered with notes inaudible to her ears. What can 
be heard by the normal human ear of his song is so 
thrillingly sweet that it makes the listener long to 
hear the whole of it, but his small body vibrates to 
notes no human ear can catch. Now all this is ca- 
pable of scientific proof. We hear seven or eight 
octaves of sounds, and see only the equivalent of 
one octave of light. But the astounding fact that 
humbles and haunts us is that between the lowest 
colour vibrations we can see, and the highest sound 
vibrations we can hear, are twenty octaves of invis- 
ible light and of inaudible sounds. 

Science has recently found a kind of periscope to 
turn the corner from light to sound. It combines 
electricity with magnetism in an electric bulb con- 
nected to a telephone ; it is called the " oscillating 
audion " wireless receiver. Because magnetism from 
luminiferous ether can vibrate metal in air, this bulb 
changes invisible light into music. "And what is 
more fascinating," our writer asks, " than to listen 
to music till now inaudible to human ears ? " 

And she declares that the music heard with an 
oscillating audion bulb compares with the buzzing 
type of wireless heard on the ordinary crystal re- 
ceivers, much as a violin compares with a policeman's 
whistle. It is, we are assured, " as sweet as flutes 
and as variable as Hawaiian guitars." 

A delightful thing about this discovery is that the 



140 



SPIRITUAL HARMONIES 



music can be enjoyed without learning any wireless 
code, without danger of electric shock, and with 
merely a few lessons in tuning the oscillating audion, 
and its batteries and controls. 

We can appreciate the sigh of satisfaction and en- 
chantment with which our writer says : " At last we 
are finding an entrance into the secret gardens ! The 
harmony of colour, which is a balanced adjustment of 
ether waves, is being transmuted into harmony of 
sound — into air-waves blending in music. Surely it 
is not enough just to read messages sent by ingenious 
man; it is not enough to manipulate ether for its 
speed alone. If we are patient, we may yet hear the 
morning stars singing together, or catch a whisper 
of moonbeams filtering down. As pattering leaves 
played over the ' let's pretend ' games of my child- 
hood, so I would let ethereal harmonies play over my 
dreams to-day. Even the noisy telephone may take 
its place in the harmony of life ! 

" I would like a lyre tuned to ethereal winds. 
With a frame of ebony and bakelite, with frets of 
selenium and strings of magnetic alloys bound in 
gold-leaf, it would respond to far-off suns, its melo- 
dies would be shot through with light. Then would 
I hear the music of the spheres that Shelley dreamed 
of, light and sound blending into the harmony of 
eternal life. 

" ' With music interwoven, 
The rainbow colors throng, 
Their melodies of heaven 
Are blending into song. 

" ' Through comet's swirling traces, 
Past moonlit fields of night, 



SPIEITUAL HARMONIES 141 



The song of silent places 
Spreads harmonies of light.'" 

Now I have gone with so much detail into this 
novel anoV extraordinarily interesting scientific dis- 
covery in the hope of finding in it an attractive illus- 
tration of the way God is seeking to quicken our 
interest in the exploration of the still higher and more 
important harmonies of the spiritual realm. 

I 

After all, that is the supreme mission of Jesus 
Christ into our world. His birth, his life, his teach- 
ing, his suffering, his death, his resurrection and 
ascension were to open up to us a way whereby we 
might explore to our soul's eternal salvation the 
blessed harmonies of heaven, not in eternity only, 
but here and now on the earth in the lives we are 
living among our fellows. 

The Incarnation of Jesus was to show us God. 
We could not see those holy characteristics of divine 
love, we could not hear those exquisite sounds oi 
divine mercy, until Jesus came to be to us, first of 
all (and I say it with infinite reverence and love), 
our oscillating audion to reveal to us God. In his 
human life we were able to behold the glory of God's 
goodness and hear the music of his forgiving love. 
He showed us in his own human body and human 
life how our bodies and lives could be the channels 
of glorious graces that would make them beautiful 
and holy and full of blessing for others. Christ re- 
vealed to us that all the external things of life are 
of small importance compared with the richness of 



142 SPIRITUAL HARMONIES 



a personality that is constantly growing in the beauty 
of holiness, and in fellowship and communion with 
God. Elizabeth Barrett Browning brings out with 
wonderful imagery the infinite importance of the 
invisible personality in man; that a man, like an ice- 
berg, has the greater part of him hidden from the 
ordinary gaze. You must penetrate within and get 
hold of the hidden, invisible soul if you are to really 
control a man. She sings : 

" Not even Christ himself 
Can save man else than as he hold man's soul; 
And therefore did he come into our flesh, 
As some wise hunter creeping on his knees 
With a torch, into the blackness of some cave 
To face and quell the beast there — take the soul, 
And so possess the whole man, body and soul." 

In that picture the great poet describes the heart 
of the mission of Jesus to the world, to 

" take the soul, 
And so possess the whole man, body and soul." 

II 

Prayer is a divinely conceived oscillating audion 
by which we may hear sounds of love and behold 
visions of heaven's mercy we could explore in no 
other way. SaUl of Tarsus, persecutor, bigot, with- 
out mercy or faith in divine things, was pursuing his 
cruel way until out of the noonday heavens he heard 
words inaudible to others, and as he prayed and 
asked who spoke to him, he found that it was Jesus. 
And when the Holy Spirit told the old saint who 
lived in Damascus to go and minister to Saul, he 
feared to go, and recounted what a violent and cruel 



SPIRITUAL HARMONIES 143 



man Saul was ; but when he was told that Saul had 
begun to pray he feared no longer; he knew that 
when the wicked Saul began to pray, be would hear 
new and transforming messages, and see all things in 
a new light. 

Prayer has the same power of blessing now. 
Think what an oscillating audion prayer was to 
Elisha at Dothan, when his secretary came in and 
told how the whole Assyrian army had surrounded 
them in the night and there was no way of escape, 
and Elisha smiled sweetly and said : " They that be 
for us are more than they that be against us." And 
when the young man looked at the prophet in amaze- 
ment as though he had lost his head, Elisha asked 
God to open his eyes so he could see, and then the 
young man was able to see the invisible hosts by 
which God was protecting his prophet. 

So God is protecting us if we are honestly serving 
him, whether we are great or small in the eyes of 
men. Prayer peoples all life with romance and in- 
terest. To the man to whom God is real through 
frequent personal conversations in prayer, life can 
never be boresome or uninteresting. God is as real 
to us as a mother to a sorrowing child when we have 
really learned to pray. Do you remember, O skep- 
tical man, when as a child you sought your mother 
for comfort? It may have been the sting of a hornet 
or a bruised arm or limb, or some cruel disappoint- 
ment that it seemed impossible to bear. But when 
you put your head in mother's lap and she stroked 
your hair and spoke words of sympathy, your heart 
was comforted. So to the grown man God is as real 



144 SPIRITUAL HARMONIES 



as that and can work as great a consolation in life's 
sternest trials if he has learned to pray. How much 
is yet to be explored of the real music and comfort 
of life to most of us in that realm of communion 
with God through prayer! 

Ill 

The Bible is a divinely prepared oscillating 
audion to give us spiritual visions and sounds of 
divine comfort and good cheer which we can never 
see or hear without its help. 

How men go the way of life, with all its sorrows 
and griefs and disappointments, who have not 
learned how to use the Bible to give sight of visions 
of divine care and songs of heavenly love, I do not 
know. Oh, how wonderful are the promises and 
solaces of the Bible! Listen to some of them: 
" How great is the goodness which thou hast laid 
up for them that fear thee, for them that trust in 
thee before the children of men." Listen again: 
" Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh 
in the morning." Again : " When thou passest 
through the waters, I will be with thee; and through 
the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou 
walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; 
neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." Or this: 
" Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the 
young men shall utterly fall ; but they that wait upon 
the Lord shall renew their strength ; they shall mount 
up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be 
weary; they shall walk and not faint." Or listen to 
this : " Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall 



SPIRITUAL HARMONIES 



145 



sustain thee," or " All things work together for good 
to them that love God," or that other, " The Lord's 
mercies are new every morning," and there are thou- 
sands of others that have been tested and tried out 
by multitudes of God's children in all lands. How 
we starve our souls when we leave unexplored the 
Bible God took hundreds of years in preparing for 
our blessing and comfort! 

IV 

Service of our fellow men is another oscillating 
audion by which we will be able to see new human 
values and hear sounds of grateful joy we will never 
hear or see otherwise. 

How much the priest and the Levite and all others 
lost who went by on the other side of the road and 
pretended not to see when the poor plundered trav- 
eler lay suffering beside the Jericho road! But the 
Good Samaritan who bound his wounds and put him 
on his own beast and carried him to the inn and pro- 
vided for him became immortal through his service. 

What joy came to Jesus in the house of Simon the 
Leper on the night of that cold and heartless enter- 
tainment when the poor redeemed woman to whom 
Christ's loving ministry had restored the true dignity 
of womanhood came and bathed his feet with her 
tears and wiped them with the long locks of her hair, 
and broke above his loving head the rich box of 
fragrant perfume! Ah, the man who serves the 
needs of his fellow men gains by his deeds a new 
vision of the rare and golden depths of the heart of 
mankind and hears words of gratitude and tender- 



146 



SPIRITUAL HARMONIES 



ness and love such as the greedy and selfish shall 
never know. 

V 

There is often a vast unexplored field for beauti- 
ful harmonies in our homes. How few parents know 
the exquisite music there is in the hearts of their 
children ! Many children are bashful and afraid, and 
hide the depths of their hearts unless one goes ex- 
ploring with the one key that can unlock a child's 
heart and cause it to show its most precious treas- 
ures, the key of sympathy and love. 

How many husbands and wives have golden har- 
vests in the heart of their life comrade. Many mar- 
ried people live only the ordinary life of partnership 
in bearing the burdens of family life, with but little 
of romance or tenderness, who might have heaven 
brought down to earth to spread its fragrance and 
glory about the portals of every earthly day if with 
unselfish tenderness and cherishing love they would 
search out the love mysteries of the good man or the 
good woman God has given them for wife or 
husband. 

God give to each one of us the divine oscillating 
audion of unselfish love that will enable us to explore 
the hearts of those nearest to us in our own homes, 
so that we may be able to behold the beautiful 
visions of fidelity and tender devotion and loyal love 
that would otherwise be undiscerned by our dull 
eyes. 

God give us ears to catch the music, sweeter than 
that of meadow lark or thrush or nightingale, more 



SPIRITUAL HARMONIES 147 



inspiring for human ears than even the chorus of 
the angelic hosts, the music of a happy loving heart 
that has found in its God-given mate the love that 
inspires the soul to noblest deeds and comforts the 
spirit for bravest and holiest living. 

Our homes are the gates to heaven, nay, they are 
heaven itself loaned to go to heaven in, when we 
have brought the love of God and love of wife and 
children to blend together in sweet communion there ! 



XIII 



THE VISION SPLENDID 
" We have seen the Lord." — John 20:25. 

ON the first Sunday evening after the resur- 
rection of Jesus the lonely-hearted friends 
of the Saviour were gathered together in 
a little room for prayer and conversation about their 
Master, when Jesus himself appeared to them with 
words of comfort and blessing. John, who was one 
of the group, says : " Jesus came and stood in their 
midst and saith unto them, ' Peace be unto you,' and 
when he had said this, he showed unto them his 
hands and his side. The disciples therefore were 
glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus therefore said 
to them again: * Peace be unto you. As the Father 
hath sent me, even so I send you/ And when he 
had said this, he breathed on them and said, ' Re- 
ceive ye the Holy Spirit/ " 

Now one of their number, Thomas, was of a diffi- 
dent, doubtful nature and had evidently been so de- 
pressed and discouraged that he had stayed away 
from the place of prayer, — many a man and many a 
woman has missed seeing the Lord by staying at 
home, when blue and depressed, from the prayer 
meeting, — so when the other disciples who had had 
this inspiring and cheering visit with Jesus met 
Thomas later and with burning hearts and glowing 

148 



THE VISION SPLENDID 149 



speech exclaimed : " We have seen the Lord ! " he 
found it hard to believe and was doomed to go a 
whole week with a despairing heart before Jesus 
mercifully appeared to him also. 

Now the greatest blessing that can come to any 
man or woman in this world is a heart-warming 
vision of God. Multitudes are born into the world 
and live in it for many years and go out of it with- 
out having ever come to a clear recognition of the 
presence of God. That is not because he is ever 
seeking to hide from us ; on the contrary he is always 
seeking to make himself known, but because men's 
eyes are blinded by the dust and smoke of material 
so that they have no spiritual vision. 

It is interesting to notice the effect of this hearten- 
ing vision on those early friends of Jesus. 

I 

In the first place it was to them a vision of great 
joy. Their gloom and depression that had been 
weighing them down was lifted and thrown to the 
winds, their hearts and faces glowed with a new joy 
born of the faith in spiritual realities that the vision 
of Christ had given them. 

And that holy joy is a distinguishing mark of those 
who live within eyeshot of God. If men or women 
live in such a relation to God that they spiritually 
discern his presence, the splendour of that vision will 
show in the gladness of their hearts, the music of 
their laughter and the radiance of their countenances. 

A Chinese woman of wealth was driving one day 
with her daughters. She passed the yard of a 



150 THE VISION SPLENDID 



Christian mission compound. Through the open 
gate she saw the children of the missionary and the 
school children playing and they looked so happy 
that she was very delightfully impressed by their joy- 
ous faces. Some days later she came to the mission- 
ary begging her to take her own daughters and put 
some of that happy " Shing polish " on their faces. 
It is the assurance in the heart of God's k>ve and his 
personal care over us and his personal interest in us 
that can make the human face shine with a joy the 
world is as powerless to give as it is to drive away. 

If we day by day live so that we discern the face 
of God and feel his nearness to us, we shall be able 
to face every morning with the glad determination — 

"I'll greet this day, 
I'll walk this way, 
A smile upon my face; 
There may be clouds, 
There may be rain, 
The storms may come, 
E'en friends may leave, 
But joy they'll not erase. 

"I will be glad; 
I'll not be sad, 

Whate'er this day may bring: 

It may be loss, 

It may be gain, 

Perhaps I'll lose, 

But in my heart I'll sing. 

" If I am glad 
And if I sing, 
Although the way is drear; 
The man I meet, 
The child I greet, 
Will catch the glow 
And hear the song, 
And feel that God is near." 



THE VISION SPLENDID 



151 



II 

This vision of their Lord gave those early Chris- 
tians a new and wonderful courage. Before this 
visit of their Lord they had been very timid and 
afraid, but now they became bold and full of assur- 
ance and only a few weeks later, on that wonderful 
day of Pentecost, they, under Peter's aggressive 
leadership, so boldly bore testimony to Christ and 
their certain knowledge of his resurrection and of 
his divine power to forgive sins that three thousand 
were added to their numbers in a single day. After 
that vision of the Lord their courage knew no bounds, 
death lost its power to make them fear, and one 
after another they unflinchingly went to the stake 
or the cross or to the dungeon for their Lord with 
brave hearts and joyful faces. 

Paul was a wonderful illustration of the courage 
imparted to a human soul by a vision of the divine 
Lord. After Christ appeared to Saul on his way to 
Damascus, and that vision had changed his name and 
his purpose and transformed his life, Paul feared 
nothing but to sin against God. He could endure 
whippings or dungeons or shipwrecks or false friends 
and finally go undaunted to martyrdom with a cry 
of eternal triumph on his lips, because again and 
again he saw the Lord and knew that his life was 
pleasing to his divine master. So let us live that we 
with our eyes upon God may sing: 

"Up', though the path is steep, 
On, through the shadows deep; 
Forward with Thee; 



152 



THE VISION SPLENDID 



Till the glad morning shine 
Thy hand is clasping mine, 
Forward with Thee. 

" Closer the shadows press, 
Greater the strain and stress 

As the hours fly; 
Oh, for the dawning light, 
Herald of morning bright, 

Flooding the sky! 

"Pitch black may be the night, 
Yet I can see the light 

Hid in Thy face; 
Sweet is Thy company, 
Faithful Thy word to me, 

Sure is Thy grace." 

Ill 

This vision of their Lord gave those early Chris- 
tians a new sense of their responsibilities to God. It 
put a new face upon duty. They were Christ's repre- 
sentatives here in the world. He had ascended into 
heaven and was their friend, their divine master 
there, and they were here holding a sacred trust. 
Duty became a task not to dread but to love and 
prize above all things. 

s An old English woman who had lost every human 
tie in the great war, wrote to a prominent Christian 
minister these wonderful words : " Me youth is 
gone, me hope is dead, me heart is heavy; but I 
neglect no duty." And the minister wisely wrote 
back to the tried soul, " In leaving you the love of 
righteousness God left you the best gift he had." 

Oh, that God would give to each of us a vision of 
himself so distinct that we may feel as keenly as did 
those early friends that 



THE VISION SPLENDID 153 



" Christ has no hands but our hands to do his work to-day ; 
He has no feet but our feet to lead men in his way; 
He has no tongue but our tongues to tell men how he 
died ; 

He has no help but our help to bring them to his side. 

" We are the only Bible the careless world will read ; 
We are the sinner's gospel, we are the scoffer's creed. 
We are the Lord's last message, given in deed and word; 
What if the type is crooked? What if the print is 
blurred? 

" What if our hands are busy with other work than his ? 
What if our feet are walking where sin's allurement is? 
What if our tongues are speaking of things his lips would 
spurn? 

How can we hope to help him and hasten his return ? " 



This cheering, heart-warming vision which the 
early disciples of Jesus had of him after his resur- 
rection gave them a new sense of human brother- 
hood, gave them a new love for humanity. They now 
realized that as God the Father, out of his great 
heart of love, had sent the loving Christ who had 
been their teacher and master to save them out of 
a wicked world, so they, too, were sent to be the 
saviours of men and women and children, and their 
love grew as they thus sought to save others. I 
think they also caught from Christ who had loved 
them as individuals a new sense of God's love for 
the individual. And I think we need to get closer 
to God to catch that feeling anew to-day. We need 
to lay the emphasis to-day on what the apostle meant 
when he speaks of Jesus, " Who loved me and gave 
himself for me" We need to urge home with a new 
intensity on the minds and hearts of sinful men and 



IV 



154 THE VISION SPLENDID 



women that Jesus longs to be the private and per- 
sonal Saviour of each private and personal soul. 

The great war, with its great masses of human 
beings in action, has taught us to think of men in the 
mass, in armies, in races, in national groups, but our 
Heavenly Father thinks of us personally, individu- 
ally, by name. This is a day when a keen sense of 
individuality is easily lost. It is an age of lodges 
and fraternities, boards, clubs, societies. There 
never was an age when it was so difficult to find the 
individual as to-day. To use the language of the 
trenches, the individual man has dug himself in. You 
have to hunt for him with a spade. But those grim 
lines of Kipling remain true : 

" The sins we do by two and two 
We must pay for one by one." 

It is only as a man comes to a keen, vivid sense 
of the personality — yes, the individuality — of God, 
that he gets a sufficiently definite sense of the im- 
portance of the individual man. If you have only 
a vague idea of God, you will have only a vague, hazy 
idea of either your own or your neighbour's person- 
ality. But when God becomes real and individual 
to you, you yourself become real. Tennyson ex- 
presses the gradual oncoming to this consciousness 
of self in a child in these lines of " In Memoriam " : 

" The baby new to earth and sky, 
What time his tender palm is prest 
Against the circle of the breast, 
Has never thought that ' this is L' 

"But as he grows he gathers much, 
And learns the use of 'I* and 'me/ 



THE VISION SPLENDID 



155 



And finds ' I am not what I see 
And other than the things I touch.' 

" So rounds he to a separate mind, 
From whence clear memory may begin, 
As thro' the frame that binds him in 
His isolation grows defined." 

And the noblest living is not possible to any man or 
woman who does not realize that they must live their 
own individual lives, responsible for that life to God. 

Principal Fairbairn, the great English thinker and 
Christian philosopher, said : " Were it possible to 
reduce the pious soul to the consciousness of only 
two things in the universe, first the reality of God, 
and second of the self, it would then be possible to 
endow that soul with the highest happiness." 

Oh, my friends, let us get deep down into our 
heart of hearts that the fundamental luminous facts 
— certainties about which there can be no doubt — are 
God and our own souls. God grant us that purity of 
heart that will give to us the vision every day which 
alone will insure our abiding joy. 

V 

How may I find God and make sure of this divine 
vision so necessary to keep my soul alive ? Men have 
asked this question in every age. 

Job in the midst of his troubles and perplexity 
cried : " Oh, that I knew where I might find him ! 
That I might come even to his seat! I would set 
my cause in order before him, and fill my mouth 
with arguments." 

But there are certain places where we may always 



156 THE VISION SPLENDID 



be sure of coming into an atmosphere through which 
we may see God. 

First, one of these is in the Bible. The Bible is 
the book of God. The whole book is alive with the 
presence of God. You can open it anywhere, in the 
story of creation, in the historical' sections, in the 
strange book of Job, the proverbs of Solomon, or the 
psalms of David, in the sublime prophecies of Isaiah 
or the Christian scriptures of the New Testament, 
and you cannot read an hour anywhere without com- 
ing face to face with the living God — the God who 
loves his children and who is forever seeking to bless 
and save them and make life sweet to them. Let us 
keep close to the Bible, for it will show us God. 

At a recent meeting of the British and Foreign 
Bible Society in London, this very remarkable story 
was told of a devoted Christian colporteur named 
Licata who for thirty years had been spreading the 
Bible in Southern Italy. One evening he was going 
through a remote corner of Sicily when he was held 
up by a brigand. The brigand said : " Oh, at last 
I have got you. You are the fellow that is going 
about corrupting the minds of poor people with your 
pestilent, demon-possessed books. I have got you 
now, and I am going, first of all, to burn all your 
books, and then I am going to shoot you." 

So he lighted a fire and ordered Licata, the colpor- 
teur, to produce his books. By a happy inspiration, 
Licata persuaded him first to allow him to read him 
something in the books. The man said " Well, that 
seems to be fair, and I will promise you that if any 
one of your books is not bad, we will not burn it." 



THE VISION SPLENDID 157 



So they agreed, and they sat down by the fire. 
Licata took up the Gospel of St. Luke, and he read 
to the brigand the story of the man who went down 
to Jericho and fell among thieves. The allusion was 
rather a personal one. The brigand might have been 
offended by the allusion to his own habits, but, to his 
credit be it said, he listened, and at the end, he 
said, " Well, there does not seem to be much wrong 
with that, anyhow. We will put that book on one 
side. Read another one." 

So Licata took up another Gospel, and yet an- 
other. The books in the bag were gradually getting 
fewer. Not one of them had been put into the fire 
so far. 

At last Licata read from the last one, and the man 
said, " Well, you need not burn that one either. Read 
the next." Licata said, " Oh, there are no more ; you 
have heard them all." The brigand said, " My friend, 
don't lie to me. It is dangerous. Produce your bad 
books. You have given me the good ones. Now let 
us have the bad ones, those devil-possessed books 
that are corrupting the people." He said, " There 
are no more." The brigand got up and searched his 
pockets and his bag; but he found no more. Then 
he said, " You can go ; but, remember, if you have 
deceived me, I will shoot you at sight like a dog." 
Licata wended his way in the darkness toward the 
village. The next morning he was at work selling 
the Scriptures, and he was surrounded by a hostile 
crowd that assailed him with clods and vituperation, 
when there burst into the crowd a big, burly fellow 
who called out, "Hold! Stop it!" It was the 



158 THE VISION SPLENDID 



brigand. He stood up in the midst of the crowd 
and told them what had happened the night before, 
and testified to the beauty and the value of the books 
which the colporteur was selling. The brigand is 
said to be a Christian worker among the Italians in 
the United States at the present time. Pollok, the 
poet, did not write too extravagantly of the power 
of the Bible to show men God and guide their lives 
aright when he exclaims : 

"Most wondrous Book, bright candle of the Lord! 
Star of eternity ! the only star 
By which the bark of man could navigate 
The sea of life, and gain the coast of bliss 
Securely! Only star which rose on time, 
And on its dark and troubled billows still, 
As generation drifting swiftly by 
Succeeded generation, threw a ray 
Of heaven's own light, and to the hills of God, 
The eternal hills, pointed the sinner's eye. 

"This Book, this holy Book, on every line 
Marked with the seal of high divinity, 
On every leaf bedewed with drops of love 
Divine, and with the eternal heraldry 
And signature of God Almighty stamped 
From first to last, this ray of sacred light, 
The lamp, from off the everlasting throne, 
Mercy took down and in the night of time 
Stood, casting on the dark her gracious bow; 
And evermore beseeching men, with tears 
And earnest sighs, to read, believe and live." 

Second, in prayer we may find God and commune 
with him face to face as friend talks with friend. 

And how much we miss when we fail to talk with 
God on intimate terms of friendship every day and 
often many times a day. Sometimes you pass your 
dearest earthly friend, only glancing across the street 
at him, and pass by with a nod. You are absorbed 



THE VISION SPLENDID 159 



in other things, and the beauty and glory of his 
wealth of sympathy and love is not felt, but at other 
times you seek him out in his home or invite him 
into your own home and open your heart and pour 
out your inmost soul to him, and you are comforted 
and encouraged and refreshed with his understand- 
ing and sympathetic friendship. So we may come 
into the closest friendship with God every day, and 
if need be many times a day, and rejoice in his lov- 
ing sympathy even more perfectly than that of any 
earthly friend. 

In my small boyhood my sweet little mother used 
to go every day, in the afternoon, to a little thicket 
beside the orchard in our primitive frontier home in 
Oregon, and though she sometimes went to that leafy 
sanctuary sad-faced and heavy-hearted, she always 
came away singing, with her face shining like the 
sun. My mother's face shone for the same reason 
that Stephen's did at his martyrdom. She had " seen 
the Lord " and her heart was glad. 

Dr. Joseph Fort Newton was preaching in the 
City Temple in London during the great war, and 
one day he was in the Author's Club when an in- 
valid English officer took him to one side and said: 
" I want to show you what was my bread and meat 
and milk and all that I had to keep my soul alive 
during the long marches of the campaign in Mesopo- 
tamia, and afterward through the long lonely waits 
in the hospitals, recovering slowly from wounds," 
and Dr. Newton was prepared to see a worn New 
Testament or some spiritual book like the Imitation 
of Christ, but instead the officer drew out reverently 



160 THE VISION SPLENDID 



a little worn note book in which he had pasted a half 
dozen short prayers uttered by Dr. Newton in the 
City Temple, and which the soldier had clipped from 
an English newspaper. The sermons printed with 
the prayers he had passed by, but the little prayers 
had shown him God. 

Third, we may see God by being good to his chil- 
dren. Mark Guy Pearse wrote a beautiful story 
about the golden key that fitteth all hearts. This is 
the gist of the story : 

Mr. and Mrs. Rogers lived twenty miles from any 
town, with a stretch of dreary moorland on one side, 
and nothing but the sea on the other. Mr. Rogers 
was a prosperous farmer, but his home was child- 
less and loveless. He was brought up to believe that 
joy and grief are sins, and that pity and kindness 
are the roots of evil. Mrs. Rogers was disappointed 
in an early attachment, and the door of her heart 
was closed and locked, shutting in the love and ten- 
derness of former days. But to be honest with Mr. 
Rogers, his feelings were too strong for his prin- 
ciples, and pity and kindness were his besetting sins. 

One Christmas eve Mrs. Rogers dreamed a dream. 
In her dream she heard a voice calling from a long 
way off, " Charity, Charity," which was her name, 
" the sea hath given up its dead." Then she saw a 
hand holding out a golden key. She took it, wonder- 
ing, and on it read : " The Master key that fitteth 
all hearts, and doth not fail." 

Mr. Rogers had a strange guest for breakfast on 
Christmas morning, and it came about in a strange 
way. 



THE VISION SPLENDID 161 



During the night there was a wreck, and broken 
spars were tossed by the waves as they broke along 
the shore. Early in the morning Mr. Rogers was 
walking slowly along the beach wondering if he 
could render any help. Looking over a rock he 
caught sight of a little bundle of clothes, and lifting 
the loose end of a shawl he saw the pale face of a 
little child. The child cried and Mr. Rogers wept, 
and in his efforts to quiet the little one he pressed 
it to his bosom and kissed the little white cheek. 

When Mr. Rogers returned to the house his wife 
was talking to the cat about her dream, and he put 
the little child into her arms, and hurried off without 
a word of explanation. 

Mrs. Rogers leaned over the child a moment, then 
her heart opened and she kissed it. When Mr. 
Rogers came back the child was asleep. He told his 
wife the story of the rescue, and confessed his joy; 
and then, leaning over the child, he kissed his wife 
and she kissed him. 

"What shall we call her, dear?" asked Mr. 
Rogers. 

" The sea hath given up its dead," Mrs. Rogers 
said to herself, " and this is the golden key that un- 
locked our hearts." 

Then turning to Mr. Rogers, she said : " Shall we 
call her Christmas, dear?" 

" The very name," said Mr. Rogers. " I thought 
of Christmas, because on this blessed day our Father 
in heaven sent down the holy child to save us all." 

"Yes, the Golden Key to open all hearts to him- 
self," said Mrs. Rogers. 



162 THE VISION SPLENDID 



God grant us each one the Golden Key that shall 
open all our hearts to God to-day. 

"My Father knows my every want; 

No help he ever fails to grant 

Whene'er I seek his mind to know, 

His will to do, his love to show : 
He knows, he knows, my Father knows, 
And safe his child where'er he goes. 

" My Father cares, he cares for me, 

However low my lot may be ; 

However great, however small 

My burdens be, he cares for all : 
He cares, he cares, my Father cares, 
His children's burdens all he bears. 

"My Father loves with love so strong, 

It fills my heart with grateful song; 

Nor life nor death nor depth nor height 

Can hide me from his loving sight: 
He loves, he loves, my Father loves, 
And safe his child where'er he moves. 

" My Father knows, my Father hears, 
My Father sees, my Father cares, 
My Father loves because he knows, 
And, knowing all, his love o'erflows : 

He sees, he hears, he cares, he knows ; 

With love for all his heart o'erflows." 



XIV 



THE ROMANTIC INTEREST IN THE 
CHRISTIAN'S FELLOWSHIP 

" Our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, 
Jesus Christ." — I John 1:3. 

PROFESSOR WILLIAM JAMES, that radiant 
scientific expert in Christian experience, 
says : " The best things in life are its 
friendships." John, who wrote our text, regarded 
this Christian fellowship of which he writes as 
friendship raised to the highest power. John was a 
close friend of Jesus during his earthly ministry. 
He had been known as " the disciple whom Jesus 
loved." He had no doubt held Jesus in his arms, 
his own head had lain on Jesus' breast at the Last 
Supper, close before the awful tragedy of the cross. 
See how John introduces our text: 

" That which was from the beginning, that which 
we have heard, that which we have seen with our 
eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, 
concerning the Word of life (and the life was mani- 
fested, and we have seen and bear witness, and de- 
clare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was 
with the Father, and was manifested unto us) ; that 
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you 
also, that ye also may have fellowship with us : yea, 

163 



164 THE CHRISTIAN'S FELLOWSHIP 



and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his 
Son, Jesus Christ: and these things we write, that 
our joy may be made full." 

If we are to fully appreciate these words of John, 
we must remember that he had become acquainted 
with Jesus in his youth and he is now an old man. 
He had already written the book known in the Bible 
as John's Gospel, in which he had told of the coming 
of Jesus, his life, his message, his work, his vicari- 
ous death and glorious resurrection; and now he 
writes this letter to go with it, telling how the fel- 
lowship with the Father and with Jesus had grown 
sweeter and richer with the years. 

And how could it be otherwise? God is the most 
interesting being in the universe. All life comes 
from God. People talk as if God belonged to heaven 
only, or in churches on Sunday or at Christmas, to 
be talked of only on special occasions such as 
funerals. But we cannot shut God out like that. If 
God is at all, he pervades all life, is the source of all 
interest, not on Sundays only, but just as truly on 
week days, not in certain compartments of our life, 
but in all of our lives. Paul says in his letter to the 
Hebrews that God is the One " with whom we have 
to do." The fault is in ourselves if we know God 
only vaguely, for he is seeking always to make him- 
self known. 

" Halts by me that footfall ; 
Is my gloom, after all, 

Shade of his hand, outstretched caressingly? 

Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest, 

I am He whom thou seekest! 

Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest me." 



THE CHRISTIAN'S FELLOWSHIP 165 



I 

The word fellowship is from a root word meaning 
literally sharing in common. The same form of the 
word is used by Luke in the Acts where he relates 
the story of the disciples bringing all their goods to- 
gether and sharing in common. Do you grasp the 
romance and interest there is in that thought ? John 
is saying that if we truly accept Christ as our 
Saviour and enter with full purpose of heart to live 
the Christian life, we enter into fellowship with the 
Father and with Jesus, and we have all things in 
common with them. When Jesus said, " I am the 
vine, ye are the branches," the teaching is the same. 
The branches share with the vine and have all things 
in common with the vine. And so we may have all 
the beauty and joy and glory of the personality of 
Jesus in us. 

That rare old fisherman, Izaak Walton, writing of 
old Dr. Donne, a mighty English preacher of his 
day, and one as quaint as Walton was himself, says 
of him that he had the gift of " enticing others by 
a sacred art and courtship to amend their lives." 
No courtship was ever so sweet as the way Jesus 
woos the soul that is willing to walk with him into 
the love mysteries of the divine nature. 

" I met a friend whose graces rare 
There seemed with naught I could compare. 
On all she poured such wondrous love 
And winning sweetness, that I strove 
To find the secret of her power; 
And this I found, that hour by hour 
Companionship with His she blends 
Who calls His followers His ' friends/ " 



166 THE CHRISTIAN'S FELLOWSHIP 



How we impoverish our souls when we put God 
afar off from the intimate daily experiences of life ! 

An old Samoan Chief said to a missionary : " We 
know that at night Some One goes by among the 
trees, but we never speak of it." Many professed 
Christians live with that same ghostly thought of 
God. But we may meet God every day through fel- 
lowship and service to our fellow men as Jesus did. 

A distinguished Christian minister tells this beau- 
tiful story. He came home one day weary from his 
afternoon calls. Entering the side hall that was al- 
ready dark, he saw through the door slightly ajar his 
little son and daughter at play. Philip, eight years 
old, was building up blocks on the floor, while Esther, 
two years younger, was standing under the elec- 
tric light with both arms raised as high as she could 
stretch them over her head. Seeing her dramatic 
position, and the unusual look on her face, the father 
remained silent in the hall, knowing that something 
interesting was coming. With intense feeling, the 
little girl said : " Oh, Philip ! Of course we would 
kiss God ! " To which Philip replied : 

" Oh, you couldn't kiss God. He is a spirit. Why 
God is in you, — and in me." 

Still standing in her dramatic position with the 
light shining full on her face, she began lowering 
her arms slowly, and as her expression of compre- 
hension deepened she said : " Oh, well then, Philip, 
if God is in you -and in me, if we were to kiss each 
other we would kiss God." 

" Yes, that is right, we would," was his response. 
Then said she: 



THE CHRISTIAN'S FELLOWSHIP 167 



"Let us kiss God." He arose promptly, and the 
children, throwing their arms tightly around each 
other, kissed God! 

No wonder the father says: "If ever there was 
a glad father I was one. Standing there in the dark 
hall I thought : ' God bless the dear children, they 
have the evangel.' That is the very essence of the 
Christian religion. ' Inasmuch as ye did it unto one 
of the least of these, ye did it unto me/ " 

II 

In such fellowship we shall come into great and 
wondrous light, so that all the great spiritual realities 
will be illumined, and we shall see the relative 
superiority of spiritual things. You cannot walk in 
darkness and have fellowship with the Father and 
with Christ. See how John continues his letter: 
" And this is the message which we have heard from 
him and announce unto you, that God is light, and 
in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have 
fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we 
lie, and do not the truth ; but if we walk in the light, 
as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with 
another." 

Soon after H. G. Wells had written his famous 
book, "God, the Invisible King," Dr. Joseph Fort 
Newton, then pastor at the City Temple in London, 
met Wells at lunch and found him all aglow over his 
discovery of what he called "The happy God of the 
heart." And Dr. Newton says he looked much sur- 
prised when he suggested to him that he had found 
what the Bible means by the Holy Spirit, as if he 



168 THE CHRISTIAN'S FELLOWSHIP 



thought his discovery entirely new. The Comforter 
whom Jesus prayed the Father to send to those first 
friends still walks with us along all the trails of our 
earthly life. 

^The light never is refused to the earnest seeker 
after truth. 

Willis E. Longee has recently retold in the Con- 
gregationalist in minute detail the story which Gen. 
Lew Wallace related to him many years ago of how 
he came to write his wonderful book, " Ben Hur." 
Wallace was on the train returning to his home in 
Indianapolis from his work as Governor of the then 
Territory of Arizona. On the journey he had a long 
conversation with his old personal friend Colonel 
Robert G. Ingersoll. During the conversation Inger- 
soll urged Wallace to make an exhaustive study of 
the subject in a scholarly way and once and for all 
forever explode the myth or legend that such a per- 
sonality as Jesus Christ ever lived on the earth. 
Wallace was tremendously moved by this appeal, and 
on reaching home told his wife, who was a Christian 
woman and member of the Methodist Church, what 
he had determined to do. She tried to dissuade him 
from his purpose, but in vain, and for many months 
he gathered his materials for his book and had writ- 
ten the first four chapters, when he became con- 
vinced that Jesus Christ was as truly a real historical 
character who had lived and wrought among men 
as was Julius Caesar or Napoleon. With that con- 
viction came also the assurance that he was the divine 
Son of God, God's gift to redeem and save a world 
of sinners, and following that the alarming convic- 



THE CHRISTIAN'S FELLOWSHIP 169 



tion that he, Lew Wallace, was a sinner, and that 
Jesus had given his life to save him ! 

He was alone in his study after midnight, when 
the Holy Spirit so convinced him of sin that he fell 
upon his knees and pleaded with God in the name of 
Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of his sins, and re- 
ceived the witness of the Spirit that his sins were 
pardoned. He could not wait until morning. He 
went upstairs where his wife was sleeping, now 
toward morning, and awakened her to tell her that 
he had been happily converted and was himself now 
a Christian. In her joy she threw her arms about 
his neck and exclaimed : " Oh, Lew, I have been 
praying day and night ever since you told me you 
were going to write that book that God would show 
you the truth and Jesus would make himself known 
to you." And there in the night they knelt beside 
the bed and rejoiced in their new fellowship with 
each other and with " the Father, and his Son Jesus 
Christ." That morning Ben Hur began to be 
written. ) 

III 

Walking in such light and fellowship we cannot 
fail to lose all our sins. See how John puts it: 
" But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, 
we have fellowship one with another, and the blood 
of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin." You 
cannot walk close to Jesus without losing your sins. 

They tell us that in Japan there is a certain kind 
of spider which spins its web over the telegraph lines, 
and from tree to tree, and to the ground. When a 



170 THE CHRISTIAN'S FELLOWSHIP 



sufficient number of webs have been spun, no mes- 
sage can be sent over the wires. Sin is like that. 
Sin shuts off the soul's communication with God. It 
did it with King Saul, and it does the same with the 
sinner now. 

Isaiah says : " Behold, the Lord's hand is not 
shortened, that it cannot save ; neither his ear heavy, 
that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have sepa- 
rated between you and your God, and your sins have 
hid his face from you, that he will not hear." But 
if we walk near Jesus we shall lose our sins. 

General Gordon was a candidate for the United 
States Senate from Georgia. A member of the 
Legislature who had been selected to vote against him 
marched up to the polls with an anti-Gordon ballot 
in his hand. On the platform sat the old general, 
the scars of battle still disfiguring what had once been 
a handsome face. When the legislator saw those 
scars he wavered, his frame shook with emotion, but 
he tried to nerve himself for the ordeal. Then sud- 
denly turning and facing the caucus, he cried : " It's 
no use, boys! I can't do it! Here goes my vote 
for John B. Gordon. It was all up with me, boys, 
when I caught a glimpse of that scar." 

So when a man gets close enough to Jesus to see 
where the sharp thorns pierced his dear forehead 
and catch a glimpse of the prints of the nails in his 
hands and the torn gash where the soldier's spear 
entered his side, he turns from his sins in horror and 
cries for forgiveness. And that cry is never in vain. 
See again what John says in his letter we are 
studying : 



THE CHRISTIAN'S FELLOWSHIP 171 



"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive our- 
selves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our 
sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our 
sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 

We should never lose out of mind the glory of 
that experience. 

Dr. Alexander Whyte, of Edinboro, says a beauti- 
ful thing about that fine Scotch preacher, Dr. John 
Kelman : " He was a man obviously saved by the 
recurring surprise and daily wonder of Christ. He 
found many around him taking Christ for granted, 
and heeding him very little. But to him Christ came 
with a new astonishment every morning, with a new 
amazement every evening." May it be like that for 
every one of us! 

IV 

The brightest, most interesting and most joyous 
association known to mortals is this glad fellowship 
with our heavenly Father, with Jesus and with the 
Comforter. 

Money, position, fame, no combination of things 
can ever give such exquisite joy as personal associa- 
tion with those whom we love and who love us. 
Not long ago, in a hospital, I heard a man who was 
looking for a comfortable room for his wife, say 
to the nurse, who reminded him that the room they 
were looking at did not have as much sunshine as 
the other : " She will have her sister with her, and 
that will be all the sunshine she needs." No one can 
walk the way of life with God and Christ and the 
Holy Spirit without good cheer. 



172 THE CHRISTIAN'S FELLOWSHIP 

/john G. Paton, the great missionary who won the 
New Hebrides as a jewel for his Master's crown, 
tells in his book a thrilling story, that no good man 
or woman ever read with dry eyes, of the death of 
his wife and babe in a lonely island among heathen 
strangers. He had to dig their grave with his own 
hands, walling it up with blocks of coral and heap- 
ing it over with coral chips. And there, through 
months and years, that grave was his shrine where he 
claimed the land for Christ. But he was never alone, 
for he had fellowship with Christ. He writes : " But 
for Jesus and the fellowship he vouchsafed me there, 
I must have gone mad and died by that lonely grave." 
But Jesus was there, and encouraged and cheered by 
that divine fellowship he lived a happy, beautiful and 
glorious life, and won multitudes to the banner of 
his Lord. ) 

y 

Such fellowship insures a strong life of high and 
noble service. It is "the joy of the Lord" that is 
to be our strength. " They that wait upon the Lord 
shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up with 
wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; 
they shall walk, and not faint." Enoch is a good 
illustration of the results of such a glorious fellow- 
ship on a man's character and personality. 

There are just three brief paragraphs in the Bible 
that give us the biography of Enoch. The first is in 
the fifth chapter of Genesis : " And Enoch lived sixty 
and five years, and begat Methuselah: and Enoch 
walked with God, after he begat Methuselah, three 



THE CHRISTIAN'S FELLOWSHIP 173 



hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: and 
all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty 
and five years : and Enoch walked with God ; and he 
was not ; for God took him." 

The second paragraph about this wonderful man 
is found in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews : " By 
faith Enoch was translated that he should not see 
death; and was not found, because God had trans- 
lated him : for before his translation he had this testi- 
mony, that he pleased God." 

The third and final word about Enoch we find in 
Jude : " And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, 
prophesied of these, saying: Behold, the Lord 
cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute 
judgment upon all, and to convince all that are un- 
godly among them of all their ungodly deeds which 
they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard 
speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against 
him." 

Now from all these we know some things about 
Enoch. He was a prominent man, the leading citizen 
of the world for three hundred years. He was a 
public man. He was a prophet. He was a great 
father, and in his family life as well as in his public 
life he walked with God and pleased God through it 
all. The precious fellowship he had with the Father 
grew in beauty and joy and interest as the years 
passed by. If it is true that the human heart is like an 
old violin that remembers all the melodies it has ever 
heard, how rich and sweet must have been the heart 
of Enoch in those latter years as he walked straight 
into the sunset and found himself at home with God ! 



174 THE CHRISTIAN'S FELLOWSHIP 



" No, I have never seen Him face to face ; 
But I have spoken in His listening ear, 
Have tasted freely of His saving grace, 
Have proved His promises and felt Him near. 

" I have not seen Him face to face ; what need ? 
When day by day His tender love and care 
Wrap me around; when I can with Him plead 
My heart's desires, and know He answers prayer, 

" Not face to face ; not yet ! but hand in hand ! 
As He has willed it, I would have it be. 
But some sweet day, I shall in His own land 
Behold Him, and His glorious beauty see ! " 



XV 



WHEN GOD LIVES WITH ME 

" Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy 
Spirit which is in you?" — i Cor. 6:19. 

GOD is a spirit. His access to the world is 
through his children. In Isaiah, fifty- 
seventh chapter, fifteenth verse, we read: 
" For thus saith the high and lofty One that in- 
habiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in 
the high and holy place, with him also that is of a 
contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of 
the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite." 

Christ makes this purpose and plan of God to use 
our body as his dwelling place, and to make it an 
instrument through which he can bless the world, 
very clear in that wonderful vine paragraph in the 
fifteenth chapter of John's Gospel. Let us refresh 
our minds with its rich and comforting utterance. 
Jesus says : "I am the true vine, and my Father is 
the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth 
not fruit, he taketh it away : And every branch that 
beareth fruit, he cleanseth it, that it may bear more 
fruit. Already ye are clean because of the word 
which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I 
in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, 
except it abide in the vine, so neither can ye, except 
ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: 

175 



176 WHEN GOD LIVES WITH ME 

He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same 
beareth much fruit: for apart from me ye can do 
nothing. If a man abide not in me he is cast forth 
as a branch, and is withered. * * * If ye abide 
in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever 
ye will, and it shall be done unto you." 

In later years John, in his first Epistle, fourth 
chapter, from the 7th to the 13th verses, returns to 
this theme and gives us his own interpretation of 
these words in a paragraph which in some respects 
is one of the most significant in the Bible. He 
writes : " Beloved, let us love one another : for love 
is of God ; and every one that loveth is begotten of 
God, and knoweth God * * * for God is love. Herein 
was the love of God manifested in us, that God hath 
sent his only begotten Son into the world that we 
might live through him. Herein is love, not that 
we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his 
Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if 
God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 
No man hath beheld God at any time: if we love 
one another, God abideth in us, and his love is per- 
fected in us: hereby we know that we abide in him 
and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit." 

And again in the third chapter of the final book 
of the Bible, also written by John, we have those 
wonderful words of Jesus which he records for us: 
" Behold, I stand at the door and knock : if any man 
hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to 
him, and will sup with him, and he with me." There 
is a clear declaration by our Saviour of the dwelling 
of God in us; not simply calling on us, but living 



WHEN GOD LIVES WITH ME 177 



with us in the closest fellowship of our daily lives. 

Some good people put spiritual things away from 
practical consideration as if to be spiritual meant to 
be vague and unreal. Nothing could be further from 
the truth. The spiritual is the most real of anything 
with which we have to deal. I am a spirit, a real 
personality, or, to speak more correctly, an indi- 
viduality entirely apart from the body in which I 
live and which at first glance seems to be the most 
substantial part of me. No one has sung this truth 
more clearly than Frederick Lawrence Knowles in 
a poem called " The Tenant," written but a little 
while before he passed on into that land where our 
spirits — that is, our real selves — shall be clothed upon 
by spiritual bodies. He sings: 

" This body is my house, it is not I : 
Herein I sojourn till, in some far sky, 
I lease a fairer dwelling, built to last, 
Till all the carpentry of time is past. 
When in my high place, viewing this lone star, 
What do I care where these poor timbers are. 
What though the rafters break, the stanchions rot, 
And earth has dwindled to a glimmering spot; 
When thou clay cottage fallest, I'll immerse 
My long cramped spirit in the universe; 
Through uncomputed silences of space 
I shall yearn upward to the leaning face. 
The ancient heavens will roll aside for me, 
As Moses monarched the dividing sea. 
This body is my house, it is not I, 
Triumphant in this faith, I live and die." 

But while we are here in this world God has pre- 
pared for us these human, physical bodies, fearfully 
and wonderfully made, in which to live and where 
he is willing to live with us in most marvelous and 



178 WHEN GOD LIVES WITH ME 



loving fellowship. God is the Creator of our bodies, 
but he is the Father of our spirits, and if we are 
dutiful children of our heavenly Father, we will 
count it our highest honour as well as our supreme 
good that God dwells in our bodies with us. 

It is impossible for us to have this fact real to us, 
that God really lives in us, without it having a tre- 
mendous influence on our manner of living. I know 
there are men and women who formally accept it in 
their creed and still live on as thoughtlessly as a dog 
in his kennel, a pig in his sty, or a fattening steer 
in his feeding corral, but no man or woman ever 
really grasps the great truth that God, the God who 
made the heavens and the earth, who holds the seas 
in his hands, who toucheth the hills and they smoke, 
— the God who made man, and when he sinned and 
went astray loved him enough to suffer and die for 
him, — that this God lives in his own body with him, 
without it lifting life out of the dirt up into some- 
thing glorious and splendid. 

May God give us all alert minds and hearts this 
morning while we ask ourselves the question: 
" What kind of life must I live when God comes to 
live in my body with me ? " 

I 

First, when God comes to live with me I must be 
careful to keep my house clean. His name is Holy. 
I must not ask him to live in a dirty body. Since 
God created my body with so much skill and care 
that he is willing to make it his own, and come and 
live in it with me, I must seek to keep it clean and 



WHEN GOD LIVES WITH ME 179 



wholesomely fed and in health. If God is to live 
with me, I must not be careless about my eating or 
drinking, I must seek to have my body at its best 
for usefulness. I must not let it get sluggish and 
lazy through indolence, or stiff and unusable through 
any fault in my care of it. If I realize that God is 
with me for dinner, I will not overeat, I will not be 
a gourmand. I will not so load down my stomach 
that my mind shall be dull and somnolent or my 
affections stupefied or drugged. I will not take either 
food or drink that will make my body an unpleasant 
home for the dear God who created it in such infinite 
love and gave to it such wonderful powers to min- 
ister not only to my own gladness, but to the joy of 
others. 

II 

If God is with me, then surely I will live in a rev- 
erent spirit toward him, ever watchful to do what 
I feel will be pleasing to him. It will surely not 
detract from our gladness, but add to it infinitely. 
You know Jesus expressly says that he comes not 
to give us a fearful, awful feeling, a cold stilted time. 
No, indeed! He comes to sup with us; and we are 
not to stand apart waiting on the table of our Lord 
only. Oh, no! We are to eat together. And the 
commonest fare will have a taste given it beyond the 
powers of any French chef, where God is at the table 
with us and the radiance of him, the essence of 
whose being is love, shines about us and dispels our 
darkness. 



180 WHEN GOD LIVES WITH ME 

I think it is pitiful to hear people talk with long 
sad faces and funereal voices about submitting to 
the will of God, as though it were God's will for us 
to have a most terrible time, when God is always 
seeking to give us a better time than any world enter- 
tainer could dream of for us. Doctor Jowett tells 
us that on one occasion his congregation in his Eng- 
lish church were singing the old hymn : " Thy Will 
Be Done." It is a sorrowful hymn, all the verses are 
full of sorrow and trouble. It was very depressing. 
Well, Mr. Fred Smith was there that day, and it got 
on his nerves and he went home and wrote another 
hymn, in the same metre and of the same mould, but 
he filled it with bright and delightful experiences. He 
took the thought up out of the " slough of despond," 
where the old hymn wallowed, and set it singing like 
a bird at mating time on a sunlit hill among budding 
trees and sunshine. He sang: 

" O God, not only in distress, 
In pain, and want, and weariness, 
Thy tender Spirit stoops to bless, 
Thy will is done. 

" But oftener on the wings of peace, 
And girt about with tenderness, 
Thou comest, and all troubles cease, 
Thy will is done. 

"In all that nature hath supplied, 
In flowers along the countryside, 
In morning light, in eventide, 
Thy will is done. 

"In youthful days, when joys increase, 
In light, in hope, in happiness, 
In quiet times of trustful peace, 
Thy will is done." 



WHEN GOD LIVES WITH ME 181 



Let us never forget for a moment that the will of 
God is the very sweetest thing that can possibly hap- 
pen to any one of us. 

Ill 

If God is with me in my body to-day, then love 
must be in complete control all day long. There will 
not be one time when I can forget and be cross or 
fretful. There must be no giving way to one un- 
charitable judgment or criticism of any other one of 
God's children. I must not give heed to any word 
of malignant gossip or speak an unnecessary word 
that might be a barb that will rankle in or poison 
another heart. I must not only speak the truth in 
his dear presence, but I must speak it in love. If I 
cannot speak it in love, I must be silent, when God 
is with me. Love, only love, must rule where he is. 
I must keep a watch on my tongue. I must set a 
sentinel not only at the door of my lips, but I must 
go farther back in the secret chambers of my think- 
ing and put a strong hand on the lever that controls 
my temper. There must be no hot, angry, rasping 
word, not really meant to hurt, yet stabbing friend 
or wife or child. God is my guest to-day, and a 
violent explosion of temper like that, how it would 
grieve his heart of love ! 

No, to-day must be given to loving thought and 
conversation. In all I devise about my fellow men 
to-day I must live and think and act under the 
golden rule. Then indeed it shall be a good day be- 
cause God lives with me. He will care more for 
some loving deed I plan or loving word I speak than 



182 WHEN GOD LIVES WITH ME 



for any other thing I can do. How beautifully Sam 
Walter Foss brings this out: 

"Who will write the best song, who will paint the best 
picture ? 

Whose music is best? 
He who understands man, knows the heart of him, loves 
him 

Above all the rest. 
" Put stars in your song and put skies in your picture, 
Put mountains and seas ; 
But one heart-throb that's tuned to the heart of a brother 
Is greater than these. 
" Man first is your song ; man first, and then mountains, 
And the woods and the seas ; 
And know, while you picture the star groups of midnight, 
He is greater than these. 

" What is art, what is art and the artist's achievement, 
Its purpose and plan? 
'Tis the message that's sent from the heart of the artist 
To the heart of a man." 

And a message like that will give pleasure to the 
loving soul of God. 

^ Dr. Richard La Rue Swain, in his illuminating 
book, " What and Where is God ? " quotes a beauti- 
fully told incident related by a good woman who was 
earnestly seeking to live the most real Christian life. 
It was her custom to retire each day to her own room 
for devotion. On one occasion when her heart was 
deeply depressed her prayers seemed all in vain. But 
she continued to plead with God : " O Lord, reveal 
thyself unto me." And while she was thus praying 
there came a rap at the door. It was the maid seek- 
ing comfort ; she had broken a choice piece of china. 
But the woman was so annoyed that she drove the 
tearful girl away harshly, saying : " You know you 



WHEN GOD LIVES WITH ME 183 



are not to bother me at this hour." Then she went 
back to her prayer : " O Lord, reveal thyself to me." 
But the skies were as brass. But as she continued 
to pray, her little girl came sobbing for comfort, be- 
cause she had broken her first doll. But she drove 
her away, saying : " My child, you must not bother 
mother now." She went back to her prayer, but as 
she prayed these words flashed across her mind as 
an electric sign will flash out at night on the street: 
" Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these least, 
ye did it not unto me." 

She sprang from her knees in shame and went out 
to the kitchen, where she found her maid sullen and 
angry, and by words of sympathy and comfort 
brought the light to her face, and went on to find her 
little daughter. From under the grape vine, where 
the child had cried herself to sleep, she picked her 
up and, when she had kissed her awake, told her she 
would get her another dolly nicer than the first, and, 
having comforted others, her own heart was filled 
with the conscious presence of God, and her soul was 
filled with inexpressible peace as the heavenly illumi- 
nation again flashed across the mind : " Inasmuch as 
ye did it unto one of these least, ye did it unto me." 

IV 

Because God is living with me, I will expect every 
hour of the day to be full of interest, and that sur- 
prises, happy and unexpected, and good enough to 
be true, will happen to-day. Life never gets to be 
a treadmill when God is in my body with me. 
Where God is there is always something happening. 



184 



WHEN GOD LIVES WITH ME 



God is in the springtime, and the Jack-in-the-pulpits 
spring up out of the mire on the edge of the swamps, 
the crocuses push their heads up ahead of the grass, 
sometimes through the lingering snow. God is in 
the summer time, and green fields turn to golden har- 
vests. God is in the autumn, and apples redden in 
the sun and grow rich in the cooling night, and the 
maple tree bursts forth in a new robe of yellow or 
crimson. God is in the winter storm, and the world 
grows white under his touch. Something always 
happens where God is. 

Sin is monotonous. It crawls on the ground like 
a snake. It has nothing new. You uncover old 
Pompeii or dig up ancient Babylon and you find the 
same old sins men wallow in now. If you want zest 
and adventure, and the joy of surprise, you must 
open your heart to the knocking hand of heaven and 
let God in to live with you. " What did the first 
frog say?" asks Mr. G. H. Chesterton, the English 
humourist, and answers it : " Lord, how you made 
me jump." God makes everything spring with life. 

We are never so vitally alive w T ith the gladness of 
adventure as when we are most conscious of the 
presence of God at home with us. There can be no 
dull days to men or women who are sure God is 
their guest. If we have constant fellowship with the 
God who made the sun, who said : " Let there be 
light, and there was light !" and also the God who "so 
loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son " 
to save sinners, then we are sure that life for us will 
be full of radiance and life and love when God lives 
with us in our human temples. 



WHEN GOD LIVES WITH ME 185 



So with great gladness let us open our hearts and 
lives to the full home-coming and life indwelling of 
God, who is love. 



"Love rules the stars of light, 
Love scatters all the night 

With holy ray; 
And as we sally forth, 
Love fills the happy earth 
With flowers of May. 

" Love ! Monarch of my heart, 

Christ, my King thou art, 

Enthroned above — 
Above the stars of night, 
In everlasting light, 

Eternal love! 

"Responsive to thy love, 

1 lift my heart above, 

O Love, to thee! 
Thou art my Life of life, 
Victor in all the strife 



But he is not onfy enthroned above, he is Lord 
over all in my heart. The constant source of life and 
light and love in my body and soul. » 



When God is in my body and holds fellowship 
with my mind and heart, I shall be awake to every 
opportunity to win other men and women to be 
friends of God, and there will be a certain tone of 
assurance about my words that will convince those 
who hear me that I do know God and what I tell 
them about him is true. Real personal experience of 
God in one's own heart and life is essential to give 
a tone of genuineness to our testimony for him. 




Eternally/ 



V 



186 WHEN GOD LIVES WITH ME 



( There is a beautiful story of Reichel, the master 
musician, that tells how he was once conducting a 
rehearsal for the production of the Messiah. The 
great chorus had sung through to the point where 
the soprano takes up the refrain : " I know that my 
Redeemer liveth." The soloist's technique was per- 
fect, she had faultless breathing, accurate note- 
placing, flawless enunciation. After the final note, 
all eyes were fixed on Reichel to catch his look of 
approval. Instead he silenced the orchestra, walked 
up to the singer with sorrowful eyes, and said : " My 
daughter, you do not really know your Redeemer 
liveth, do you ? 93 " Why, yes," she answered, flush- 
ing, " I think I do." " Then sing it ! " cried Reichel. 
" Tell it to me, so I and all who hear you will know 
that you know the joy and power of it." Then he 
motioned the orchestra to play it again. And this 
time she sang the truth as she knew it in her own 
heart, sang it as she experienced it in her own soul, 
sang it with no thought of applause, sang it so glori- 
ously that all who heard forgot the craftsman's work 
and wept under the spell of the singer's soul. Again 
the old master approached her, not with sorrowful 
eyes, but with joyous tear-filled eyes, kissed her on 
the forehead, and said : " You do know, for you 
have told me so." 

Oh, that God may live so really in my heart and in 
your hearts to-day and all the days that the radiance 
of our faces shall convince all who know us, that God 
lives in us ! 



EVANGELISTIC WORK 



OZORA 8. DAVIS 
President, 

Chicago Theological Seminary 

Evangelistic Preaching 

With Sermon Outlines and 
Talks to Children and Young 
People. $1.50 

"The best help on this important 
subject that we have ever seen. 
Sets forth with skill and complete- 
ness the method of evangelism that 
best appeals to the men and women 
of the present day." — C. E. World. 

WILLIAM E. BIEDERWOLF ™ " 
Sec. The National Federated Evangelistic Committee 

Evangelism 

Its Justification — Operation — Value. $1.75 

"It is a text-book and a call. Every chapter is full 
of value. It tells how to give the invitation and how to 
conduct the after-meeting. It is a book for every on^ 
who is interested in doing evangelistic work." 

Herald and Presbyter. 1 

FREDERICK L. FAGLEY 

Executive Secretary Commission on Evangelist^ 
Congregation Churches. 

Parish Evangelism 

An Outline of a Year's Program. $1.00 

Mr. Fagley lays down a sensible, workable plan of 
work, including the formalities and maintenance of an 
evangelistic committee, a program of preaching, methods 
of personal work, deepening of the prayer-life, etc. 

J. W. PORTER 

The Assurance of Salvation 

And Other Evangelistic Sermons. $1.25 

"Sermons of the distinctly orthodox type and sug- 
gestive in outline and illustration. Warm the soul and 
stimulate the thought." — Evangelical Messenger. 

CHARLES FORBES TAYLOR (The Boy Evan- 
gelist) The Riv€ter > s Gang 
and Other Revival Addresses. $1.25 

"The value of this book lies not alone in the anecdotes 
and sermons that it contains, but in the illustration of 
how a successful evangelistic preacher may enforce his 
teaching." — Lookout. 




PRAYER AND DEVOTIONAL 



H. L. WILLETT and C. C. MORRISON 

The Daily Altar 

An Aid to Private Devotion and Family- 
Worship. $1.5© 

A book that has come for just such a time as this. 
Some churches report that they are growing a new re- 
ligious spirit in their congregation through the ministx*y 
of this book in the homes of their people. 

F. B. MEYER 

Daily Devotional Commentary 

Notes on Every Chapter Throughout the 
Bible. Five Volumes, each 75c. The Set, $3.75 

"The author has selected from each chapter of the 
Bible a keynote which epitomizes the thought and teach- 
ing of the entire chapter. These inspiring notes consti- 
tute an exposition of the most important facts and doo» 
trines of Holy Scripture." — Christian Work, 

E. M. BOUNDS 

Heaven 

A Place, A City, A Home. 

$1.25 

"Possessed of a wonderfully full 
knowledge of Holy Scripture, a man 
of unswerving faith and mystical 
insight, Mr. Bounds writes with a 
certitude, confidence and joyous an- 
ticipation of the eternal felicity 
awaiting the faithful believer. This 
book should be hailed with unfeigned 
satisfaction by devout Christian men 
and women." — Christian Work. 




EDWARD LEIGH PELL Author of "Secrets of 
- Sunday School Teaching" 

What Did Jesus Really Teach About 
Prayer? $1.50 

Dr. Pell's new book is a helpful inquiry into the ques- 
tion of how the Christian of to-day should use prayer, 
the greatest weapon in his arsenal, and an emphasis of 
the fact that Christ in this, as in all other matters re- 
lating to spiritual life and growth, is the great Pattern 
for us all. 



PROBLEMS OF TODAY 



GEORGE McCREADY PRICE, M.A. 
Poisoning Democracy 

A Study of the Present-Day Socialism. $1.25 

Professor Price shows that the conditions prevailing 
today are due largely to the acceptance of various so- 
cialistic and evolutionary theories termed "New" Theol- 
ogy. No more terrific moral and religious indictment of 
Socialism has ever heen presented. 

ALBERT CLARKE WYCKOFF 

The Non-Sense of Christian Science 

$1.75 

A deadly, withering attack on Christian Science en- 
filading its every position. Mr. Wycvoff's searching an- 
alysis of the pretensions, errors, follies, and non-sense of 
so-called Christian Science should prove as convincing aa 
it is unanswerable. 

ALLEN W. JOHNSTON 

The Roman Catholic Bible and the 
Roman Catholic Church 

Foreword by David J. Burrell, D.D. $1.25 

A book that examines the cardinal doctrines as taught 
by the Church of Rome, such as the Invocation of 
Saints, Purgatory, Indulgences, Worship of Mary, the 
Holy Eucharist, etc. etc., and indicates the dissimilarity 
between this body of teaching and Holy Writ. 

New Editions. 

I. M. HALDEMAN 

Can the Dead Communicate with the 
Living? $1.25 

"Needless to say, Dr. Haldeman holds no brief for Spir- 
itism. A book that is awakening everyone to the peril of 
'spiritualism' among Christians." — Christian Work. 

JAMES M. GRAY, D. D. 

Spiritism and the Fallen 
Angels 

From a Biblical Viewpoint. 

$1.25 

"Beginning with a review of the 
present-day revival of Spiritism and 
how to meet it, Dr. Gray harks back 
to origins, the baleful influence of 
the cult from the earliest recorded 
history cf the human race." 

S. S. Times. 




SPIRITISM 

AND THE 

FALLEN ANGELS 



JAMES M. ORAT. O. D. 



CHURCH AND SUNDAY SCHOOL WORK 



ROGER W. BABSON 

The Future of the Churches 

Historic and Economic Facts. $1.00 

Mr. Babson shows in a constructive way how the fu- 
ture prosperity and achievement of the church are^ de- 
pendent on its ability to enter fully into the manifold 
life of the people, and stand as firmly for social and 
civic righteousness as for the meeting and supplying 
distinctly spiritual needs. 



Pres. WILLIAM ALLEN HARPER 

Author of "The New Church For The New Time" etc. 

The Church in the Present Crisis $1.75 

Dr. Harper's new book is a refreshing, stimulating an- 
tidote to the host of works concerning the church's fail- 
ure and of mankind's growing worse and worse year by 
year. Dr. Harper is fully aware of what the church 
lacks and of the necessity for new methods and fresh 
life and he discusses various modus operandi which should 
lead to a larger increase of usefulness and power. 



P. E. BURROUGHS Author of "The Present-Dan 
1 Sunday School." 

Building a Successful Sunday School 

$1.50 

A valuable study of means and methods from the 
adoption of which the best results may be looked for, 
in the management of a large school. Dr. Burroughs 
writes out of a large experience, and his suggestions 
and plans of management are of an unusually valuable 
sort. 



ROBERT F. Y. PIERCE International Illustrator 

Blackboard Efficiency 

Illustrated $1.50 

A new book by the author of "Pictured Truth" and 
"Pencil Points" contains a new wealth of lessons on 
both the Old and New Testaments with sketches for 
blackboard work. The simplicity and charm of Dr. 
Pierce's work is well known. His "Chalk Sketches" are 
so simple that any teacher can draw them, yet wonder- 
fully pointed and helpful in bringing out the essence of 
the lessons. 



BIBLE STUDY 



P. WHIT WELL WILSON 
Author of the "Christ We Forget' 

The Vision We Forget 

A Layman's Reading of ^ 
the Book of Revelation. 

$2.00 

"Certainly this is the most en- 
tertaining treatise on the Revela- 
tion ever written. Will make the 
Revelation a new hook in the 
reading of many Christians. It 
brings the Revelation down into 
the present day and makes it all 
intensely vital and modern." 

C. E. World. 



THE VISION 
WE FORGET 



VHJTWEU WILSOM ' 



J. /. ROSS 



The author of 
'The Kingdom in Mystery. 



Thinking Through the New Testament 

An Outline Study of Every Book In the 
New Testament. $1.75 

A course of study in the books of the New Testament. 
Dr. Ross has prepared a volume which can be used by 
the individual student as well as by study groups. 

FREDERIC B. OXTOBY 

Making the Bible Real 

Introductory Studies in the Bible. $1.00 

In simple, direct language, Dr. Oxtoby brings his 
readers into close, intimate contact with the wonderful 
story of God's chosen People, their Land, their History, 
their Prophets and their Literature. 

PHILIP MAURO Author of "The Number of Man" 

Bringing Back the King 
Another Volume on the Kingdom. $1.00 

Continuing his study of the Kingdom, the author in 
this volume sets forth the relation of King David with 
the Gospel. 

PHILIP MAURO 

Our Liberty in Christ 

A Study in Galatians. $1.25 

An exposition of Galatians from the standpoint that 
its main theme is "the Liberty wherewith Christ has 
made us free." Special attention is given to the unfold- 
ing of the remarkable "allegory" in Chapter IV. 



PRAYER AND EVANGELISM 




JOHN HENRY JOWETT, P.P. 

"Come Ye Apart" 

Daily Exercises in Prayer Jf 
and Devotion, iamo. 



"Once again is it possible to 
see the richness of Dr. Jowetf s 
thoughts and distillations of 
spiritual troths, that sparkle 
from his rare gifts and literally 
to pack overmuch into very few 
words some great eternal fact," 
•Christian Work. 



WILLIAM E. BIEPERWOLE, P.P. 

Lectures Delivered at Prineeton Theological Seminary 

Evangelism : 

Its Justification, Its Operation and Its, Vatee, 
i2mo, cloth. 

Dr. Biederwolf's calm, measured presentation of the 
methods best calculated to secure results which can be 
permanently conserved is especially welcome to-day. 
Among the phases discussed are: The Philosophy of 
Revival; The Preacher and His Message; Pastoral 
ISvangelism; The Union Evangelistic Campaign; In- 
dividual Evangelism, etc., etc. 

EPWARP M. BOUNPS 

Purpose in Prayer 

i2mo. 

"The author of this helpful volume, an American, has 
attained a great vogue in Great Britain as a writer of 
devotional work of an unusually high order. Bounds 
understands prayer because he practiced it and gave it 
paramount place in his daily life. He pleads with pas- 
sionate earnestness for the enthronement of prayer in the 
heart and life of the Christian believer, 

A. B. SIMPSON, P.P. 



Songs of the Spirit 

With frontispiece. i2mo, cloth. 

Dr. Simpson, founder of the Christian and Missionary 
Alliance, was a man of high and varied attainments. An 
eloquent preacher, a great organizer, he also possessed a 
graceful gift of devotional song. During his long ministry 
he wrote hundreds of pieces, many of -which were hymns 
which have beeiji set to music and are here published for 
the first time. 



M 1 




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